New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced the name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for the next month's Gujarat Assembly election. In a press conference in Ahmedabad, the AAP chief named Isudan Gadhvi as the party's CM face. He said that the 40-year-old journalist turned politician got as many as 73 per cent votes in a poll conducted by the party.


Those in the race for the top post from the AAP included its state unit president Gopal Italia and general secretary Manoj Soratihya.


The AAP National Joint General Secretary, a member of its National Executive, was a popular journalist before he left news media to get into active politics by joining the AAP.


In June 2021, Isudan Gadhvi joined the AAP in presence of party convener Arvind Kejriwal. His joining the Arvind Kejriwal-led party further highlighted AAP's ambition for contesting the 2022 assembly election.


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


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Last week, Arvind 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.


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 chief minister."


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.