Gujarat polls: AAP's CM candidate Isudan Gadhvi to contest from Khambhalia seat

Ahmedabad: Aam Aadmi Party’s Gujarat chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi will contest the next month’s Assembly elections from Khambhalia seat in his home district of Devbhumi Dwarka, the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday.

Kejriwal made this announcement through a tweet.

“Isudan Gadhvi, who for years raised his voice for farmers, unemployed youth, women, businessmen, will contest election from Jam Khambhalia! Gujarat will get a new and good chief minister from the holy land of Lord Krishna,” the Delhi Chief Minister said in a tweet in Hindi.

Responding to it, Gadhvi tweeted, “The faith you and the people of Gujarat have placed in me, I assure that I will serve the people of Gujarat till my last breath. Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat!” Gadhvi, a former TV journalist, was named the party’s CM candidate on November 4 based on the result of a poll conducted by the AAP. The party’s Gujarat unit president Gopal Italia and general secretary Majoj Sorathiya were also in the race.

Gadhvi, who hails from an agricultural family from Dwarka district, had received around 73 percent votes (in the poll for the CM face), leaving Italia and Sorathiya behind in the race.

With this, the AAP has so far announced the names of 175 candidates for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly.

Khambhalia will go to polls along with 88 other seats on December 1 in the first phase of two-phase Gujarat elections. For the first phase, the last date of filing nomination forms is November 14 and the last date for withdrawal of forms is November 17.

The second phase of polls will take place on December 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.