Isudan Gadhvi is Aam Aadmi Party’s CM face in Gujarat

Isudan Gadhvi, a 40-year-old television journalist-turned-politician, was named Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial candidate for the Gujarat Assembly elections. Arvind Kejriwal, AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister, made the announcement on Friday, November 4. AAP is the first party to name a chief ministerial candidate in the Gujarat polls. 

Gadhvi is said to have won 73% of the vote in the party’s internal survey to select the chief ministerial candidate. For the survey, AAP put out a phone number for people to name the candidate of their choice. A similar method was followed in Punjab when Bhagwant Mann was selected as the party’s CM face. The experiment worked and Kejriwal’s party seems to be building on its Punjab formula. 

Isudan Gadhvi was extremely popular as a journalist in Gujarat anchoring some of the most highly rated news shows in the state. 

Following the 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 Gujratis everything they need…I will serve the people until my last breath.” 

“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,” Gadhvi said. 

Isudan Gadhvi’s father is a farmer by profession. He belongs to the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. Nearly 48% of Gujarat’s population falls under this category. 

Gujarat will go to polls to elect a 182-member Assembly in the first week of December. The first phase of polls will take place on December 1 and the second phase of polls will take place on December 5. Results of the Gujarat elections will be announced on December 8, the same day as Himachal Pradesh poll results are announced.