AAP Announces Isudan Gadhvi As Its Chief Ministerial Candidate In Gujarat

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today (4 November) named former TV anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections.

The announcement was made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who said the 40-year-old Gadhvi got as many as 73 per cent votes in a poll conducted by the party. Gadhvi is a close confidante of AAP chief in Gujarat.

He was pitted against state party unit chief, Gopal Italia, who played a key role in the Patidar community agitation. Italia's disrespectful utterances on Hindu rituals and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother sent his party, vying for Hindu votes, on a backfoot.

Gadhvi hails from a well-to-do farmers’ family in Dwarka district’s Pipaliya village and belongs to the other backward castes, which account for 48 per cent of the state’s population.

He had joined AAP in 2021 and was given the role of national joint general secretary.

Kejriwal said the party conducted the poll by asking people to call a phone number and listen to a recorded message which asked them to choose their chief ministerial face.

(With inputs from PTI)