Gujarat Assembly elections 2022: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), one of three prime contenders in Gujarat Assembly elections, on Friday, surprised political fraternity by declaring former TV anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate.
40-year-old Gadhvi, who got as many as 73 per cent votes in a poll conducted by the party, surpassed Gujarat AAP unit chief Gopal Italia, who played a key role in the Patidar community agitation.
Who is Isudan Gadhvi?
Gadhiv hails from a farmers’ family in Dwarka district’s Pipaliya village and belongs to the other backward castes (OBC), which account for 48 per cent of the state’s population.
Gadhvi is known media professional. He was associated with VTV News and anchored for popular news show Mahamanthan at VTV Gujarati.
He did Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication from Gujarat Vidyapeeth in 2005. Gadhvi worked in a popular Doordarshan show called ‘Yojana’.
From 2007 to 2011, Isudan worked at ETV Gujarati as an on-field journalist in Porbandar.
The turning point of his journalistic career was when he reportedly exposed a Rs 150 crore scam of illegal deforestration in Dang and Kaparada talukas of Gujarat on his news show. His expose compelled the government to take action.
Political Career
Gadhvi’s political inning with AAP is not so long. He joined AAP in June last year. Gadhvi’s entry into AAP empowered the party in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is known face to people in Gujarat. His induction in AAP was seen a big political move to counter already established two traditional political parties- Congress and BJP.
Recently, AAP has appointed Gadhiv as National Joint General Secretary in June eying upcoming assembly elections.
He has been one of the leading face of AAP for AAP’s 'Jan Samvad Yatra' in Junagadh where his convoy was attacked allegedly by goons. Delhi CM Kejriwal left no stone unturned to snowball the Junagarh attack and he Spoke to then Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani demanding action against culprits.
Gadhvi was instrumental in holding AAP’s ‘Jan Samvedna programme’ in every district to attempt reach out to people.
He also religiously played ‘Hindu card’ to attract voters from Hindu community when the demolition of Ramdev Peer temple in Surat took place in September 2021.
Now, it would be interesting to see whether Gadhvi will do a Bhagwant Mann in Gujarat.
Meanwhile, The AAP on Thursday announced its ninth list of 10 candidates for the Gujarat polls, taking the number of candidates whose names have been announced so far to 118.
Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases next month - on December 1 and 5 - while votes will be counted on December 8.
Also Read: Gujarat Assembly elections: Ex-journalist Isudan Gadhvi is AAP Chief Minister Candidate
