Gujarat Polls: Who Is Isudan Gadhvi? AAP CM Candidate In Battle To Challenge Ruling BJP

A popular name in Gujarat, Isudan Gadhvi has been entrusted with the responsibility to lead the AAP's campaign to victory. Know all about the journalist turned politician.

AAP's Gujarat CM candidate Isudan Gadhvi

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday announced Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls. A popular name in Gujarat, the former news anchor has been entrusted with the responsibility to lead the AAP's campaign to victory.

In a press conference in Ahmedabad, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal announced 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.

Who Is Isudan Gadhvi?

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

A farmer's son, Isudan began his journalism career in a popular Doordarshan show called ‘Yojana’. He went on to work at ETV Gujarati as an on-field journalist in Porbandar from 2007 to 2011.

His report on a Rs 150 crore scam of illegal deforestation in Dang and Kaparada talukas of the state gained him recognition while it also prompted the Gujarat government to take action. 

In 2015, he joined VTV as the youngest channel head in Gujarati media. From 2015 until 2021, Isudan hosted a popular prime-time TV show called Mahamanthan on VTV Gujarati where he discussed various issues with the panelists.

Isudan Gadhvi is said to be popular among the farming community in Gujarat hailing from a farmers’ family in Dwarka district’s Pipaliya village. He belongs to the other backward castes, which account for 48 per cent of the state’s population.

He raised farmers' issues during his Mahamanthan programme which was said to have had a wide viewership in the state's rural regions as well.

This coupled with Gadhvi’s own popularity may help the AAP in the contest for Gujarat.

Isudan Gadhvi Made 'Huge Sacrifice Of A Promising Career': Arvind Kejriwal 

In June 2021, Isudan Gadhvi joined the AAP in presence of party convener Arvind Kejriwal, who had arrived in Ahmedabad to inaugurate AAP's state headquarters. His joining the AAP further highlighted the party's ambition for contesting the 2022 assembly election in the state.

Kejriwal lauded Isudan for making a “huge sacrifice of a promising career to clean the mess that the ruling party, together with the Congress, had created in Gujarat”, a report by the Hindustan Times mentioned.

Notably, the journalist turned politician was among the 55 AAP functionaries arrested on charges of rioting, sexual assault, assault, and forcible entry for barging into BJP's headquarters 'Kamalam' on December 20 last year to protest against the leak of paper in a state recruitment exam.

Gadhvi and others were granted bail in the rioting case by a Gandhinagar court on December 30. He was booked under sections 66 (1)B and 85 (1) of the Gujarat Prohibition Act on January 1, 2022.

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. 

(With Agency Inputs)