The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday, November 4, named former television anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for next month’s assembly elections in Gujarat.

The announcement was made by AAP national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who said that the 40-year-old Gadhvi got as many as 73% votes (of 16,48,500 responses) in a poll conducted by the party, among its members and workers. Gadhvi was pitted against state party unit chief Gopal Italia, who played a key role in the Patidar community agitation. In fact, it was Italia who had initiated Gadhvi into politics.

Gadhvi hails from a farmers’ family in Dwarka district’s Pipaliya village in coastal Saurashtra and is from an Other Backward Class (OBC) community. The OBCs account for 48% of the state’s population. He graduated from Gujarat Vidyapith in journalism and mass communication. Before he forayed into politics, he anchored a television show titled ‘Mahamanthan’. He quit as editor of VTV Gujarati last year to join the AAP.

Kejriwal said the party conducted the poll by asking people to choose their chief ministerial face. Over 16 lakh people voted and 73% of those preferred Gadhvi, Kejriwal said. Last week, Kejriwal urged people to contact the party through SMS, WhatsApp, voice mail and e-mail to give their views about who should be the chief ministerial candidate from the party in the state, which is currently being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

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 the chief minister.”

After the announcement, Gadhvi in an emotional speech called it a “huge responsibility”. “A humble farmer’s son like me has been given such a huge responsibility in Arvind Kejriwal’s politics… I will try to do the best I can. God has given me everything. Now I want to give my fellow Gujaratis everything they need…I will serve the people until my last breath,” NDTV quoted Gadhvi as saying.

Continuing further, he said, “Arvind Kejriwal told me, you raise issues of the common man, people like you should join politics. If people like you and I don’t join politics, then the corrupt people will have a free run. Politics is not my desire but my compulsion.”

In October, he launched “Bas, Havey Parivartan Joiyiye (enough, now we need change)” yatra from Dwarka district. It is set to conclude on November 20, after covering 67 constituencies.

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. Buoyed up by its success in Punjab, the AAP hopes to challenge the ruling BJP and the Congress in Gujarat.