Isudan Gadhvi is CM face of AAP in Gujarat

Isudan Gadhvi, a former journalist and AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) national joint general secretary, has been announced to be the party’s candidate for chief minister in the Gujarat Assembly elections scheduled for next month.

AAP’s chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “We don’t decide sitting in a room who will be a CM candidate. Bhagwant Mann was chosen as CM not by AAP, but by Punjab’s public. At a time when it seems sure that AAP will form the government, today we are not announcing the name of the CM candidate of AAP but announcing the CM for the next Gujarat government.” He added, “A week ago, we solicited public opinion and 16,48,500 responses were received, and 73% of them took Isudanbhai Gadhvi’s name.”

After the announcement on Friday, 40 year old Gadhvi embraced Kejriwal and fellow party members Manoj Sorathiya, Yuvrajsinh Jadeja among others before getting off the stage to seek blessings from his mother. An OBC, Gadhvi used to run a popular TV show ‘Mahamanthan’ as editor of VTV Gujarati. Last year he quitted the broadcast network to join AAP. “In my entire life, not even a single member in my family has held a political position, even of a sarpanch. When Kejriwalji had asked me to join AAP… he told me, ‘See had I not come into politics, would Delhi have good schools, mohalla clinics? I went to Delhi and saw it for myself, the work that has been done and decided then (to join AAP)… I am entering politics not as a shauk (hobby), but because it is a majboori (compulsion)… because I couldn’t bear the pain of Gujarat’s people.”

“When I was a reporter, I would report on issues of farmers, the unemployed, women security, business persons and traders, labourers, contractual employees. But there’s a Lakshman rekha where you can run such issues as news but you can’t issue orders (to change the system),” he further shared.