Former TV anchor Isudan Gadhvi is AAP’s choice for CM post

Ahmedabad: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday named former TV anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for next month’s Assembly elections in Gujarat.

The announcement was made by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who said the 40-year-old Gadhvi got as many as 73 percent votes in a poll conducted by the party.

Gadhvi was pitted against state party unit chief Gopal Italia, who played a key role in the Patidar community agitation.

He hails from a farmers’ family in Dwarka district’s Pipaliya village and belongs to the other backward castes, which account for 48 percent of the state’s population.

Kejriwal said the party conducted the poll by asking people to choose their chief ministerial face.

Over 16 lakh people voted and 73 percent of those preferred Gadhvi, Kejriwal said.

Last week, Kejriwal urged people to contact the party through SMS, WhatsApp, voice mail, and e-mail to give their views about who should be the CM candidate from the party in the state, which is currently being ruled by the BJP.

He had said that people could submit their points of view till November 3 evening and on the basis of their opinions, the name of the party’s chief ministerial face would be announced the next day.

At that time, Kejriwal had also said, ”During the Punjab elections, we had asked people as to who should be the next chief minister. People named Bhagwant Mann by a huge majority. And as per the wishes of the public, we made him the chief minister.” 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.