Former TV anchor Isudan Gadhvi is AAP's CM face in Gujarat

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 4

AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that former TV anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi would be the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections.

Gadhvi, 40, received 73 per cent votes in a poll conducted by the party to choose its CM candidate, Kejriwal said at a press conference. Over 16 lakh people voted in the survey, he said. Others in the race included state leaders Gopal Italia and Manoj Sorathiya. Hailing from a farmers’ family of Pipaliya village in Dwarka district, Gadhvi is an OBC, a community that account for 48 per cent of the state’s population.

Gadhvi said politics was not a “hobby” but “compulsion” for him. “As a TV journalist, I tried to raise the voice of people, however, if you want to clean the mess you have to be a part of it,” said Gadhvi.

While the BJP is expected to name its incumbent Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel as the CM face, the Congress is yet to open its cards. A good performance is critical for the Aam Aadmi Party not just for its political future in Gujarat, but also for its pan-India ambitions.

Beginning his career with Doordarshan show called ‘Yojana’, Gadhvi worked with ETV Gujarati from 2007 to 2011. He gained popularity after he exposed a Rs 150-crore scam of illegal deforestation at Dang and Kaparada talukas in his news show, forcing the Gujarat Government to take action. In 2015, he joined VTV Gujarati as the youngest channel head in Gujarati media. He joined Arvind Kejriwal-led party in 2021.

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