AAP picks CM face for Gujarat Assembly elections: Who is Isudan Gadhvi, TV journalist-turned-politician?

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has picked Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. Delhi chief minister and party convenor Arvind Kejriwal made the announcement today (4 November) at a press conference in Ahmedabad.

Kejriwal said Gadhvi received 73 per cent of the votes in a survey conducted by the party to select its chief ministerial candidate for the poll-bound state.

“We don’t decide who will be the chief minister candidate while sitting in a room. Bhagwant Mann was chosen as chief minister not by the AAP but by Punjab’s public. At a time when it seems sure that the AAP will form the government, today we are not announcing the chief minister candidate of the AAP but announcing the chief minister for the next Gujarat government. Last week we invited public opinion, and 16,48,500 responses were received and 73 per cent of them named Isudanbhai Gadhvi,” the AAP chief was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

Who is Isudan Gadhvi, AAP’s chief minister pick? When is Gujarat going to the polls? Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Isudan Gadhvi?

Born on 10 January 1982, Isudan Gadhvi is a former Gujarati TV anchor and journalist who joined the AAP last year.

The 40-year-old hails from a farmers’ family at Jamkhambhaliya in the Devbhumi Dwarka district of coastal Saurashtra. He belongs to the other backward castes (OBC) which make up 48 per cent of Gujarat’s population.

Gadhvi, who is currently the AAP’s national joint general secretary, was pitted against state party unit chief Gopal Italia, who has played a key role in the Patidar community protests. AAP general secretary Manoj Soratihya was also in the race for the chief ministerial candidate.

As a journalist, Gadhvi worked in a popular Doordarshan show called Yojana. From 2007 to 2011, he worked as a field journalist in Porbandar with ETV Gujarati, as per Indian Express. 

Gadhvi– who calls himself a nayak or victor–would be remembered as the journalist who exposed a Rs 150 crore scam of illegal deforestation in Dang and Kaparada talukas of Gujarat. The report had forced the Gujarat government to initiate action, as per Fress Press Journal.

In 2015, when he was working for VTV Gujarati, his show Mahamanthan which featured from 8-9 pm was among the most popular news shows.

He told News18, “My show had lakhs of viewers. People gave a lot of love and when the show shifted outdoors from the studio, hundreds of people would gather. Farmers, particularly, saw a messiah in me.”

After Gadhvi resigned as editor of VTV Gujarati last year, he was persuaded by Gopal Italia to join AAP which he finally did in June 2021. The BJP and the Congress had also approached him at the time, he told Indian Express.

Gadhvi was embroiled in a controversy when he was booked under the Prohibition Act in January for which he was arrested and later got bail.

Earlier, he had spent 11 days in jail for protesting at the BJP headquarters on 20 December last year in Gandhinagar over a paper leak. The Gandhinagar police had claimed that a test report carried out on him on the protest day showed 0.0545 per cent presence of alcohol, notes Indian Express.

Denying the claims, he had said before his arrest: “I have never consumed liquor in my life”.

Last month, Gadhvi had launched ‘Bas, Havey Parivartan Joiyiye’ (enough, now we need a change) rally from Dwarka district, which is slated to end on 20 November, after covering 67 constituencies, as per Indian Express.

‘Will serve people till my last breath’

In an emotional speech after Kejriwal’s announcement, Gadhvi said, “A humble farmer’s son like me has been given such a huge responsibility in Arvind Kejriwal’s politics.”

“I will try to do the best I can. God has given me everything. Now I want to give my fellow Gujaratis everything they need…I will serve the people until my last breath,” he was further quoted as saying by NDTV.

Commenting on his plunge into politics, he said has always raised his voice for people as a journalist. However, there was a limit “because of rot in the system”.

“Arvind Kejriwal told me, you raise issues of the common man, people like you should join politics. If people like you and I don’t join politics, then the corrupt people will have a free run. Politics is not my desire but my compulsion,” he said, as per NDTV. 

Taking to Twitter, he wrote later, “I want to say heartfelt thanks to the Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal ji and especially the people of Gujarat for giving such a big responsibility to a common man like me.”

“I promise that by becoming a servant of the people, I will always work for the public interest,” he added.

मुझ पर विश्वास रख मेरे जैसे आम आदमी को इतनी बड़ी जिम्मेदारी सोपने के लिए में आम आदमी पार्टी, अरविन्द केजरीवाल जी और खास कर गुजरात की जनता को दिल से धन्यवाद कहना चाहता हु।

में वचन देता हू की जनता का सेवक बन सदैव लोकहित के काम करूंगा।

— Isudan Gadhvi (@isudan_gadhvi) November 4, 2022

Gujarat Assembly elections

The Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases on 1 and 5 December and the results will be declared on 8 December.

AAP has been successful in turning the Assembly elections into “BJP versus AAP narrative”, news agency PTI cited political observers as saying.

“An aggressive poll campaign of the AAP and the Congress’s cold response so far has helped Kejriwal turn the Gujarat elections into BJP versus AAP narrative,” a pollster collecting data for a survey agency told PTI.

However, if this can muster electoral gains for the AAP remains to be seen.

With inputs from agencies

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