Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi is facing a triangular contest from Khambhalia seat against Congress leader and sitting MLA Vikrambhai Madam and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate Mulu Iyer Bera.
Gadhvi, 40, who joined the AAP in June last year, belongs to the Other Backward Castes (OBCs), which constitute 48 per cent of the state’s population. He hails from Pipaliya village in Dwarka district in Gujarat, and was named as the party’s CM candidate on 4 November, with 73 per cent votes polled by AAP for the CM face.
It is to be noted that the Khambhalia seat is currently held by Congress leader Vikrambhai Madam. In 2017, he defeated BJP’s Karubhai Naranbhai Chavda by a margin of 11,046 votes. While Vikrambhai Madam got a total of 79,779 votes, Kalubhai Naranbhai Chavda got around 68,733 votes. BJP had won this seat in 2007 and 2012.
This time when elections are underway in Gujarat, all eyes are on Isudan Gadhvi, a relative newcomer to the political arena, as he faces seasoned politicians who have won elections before.
Gadhvi, a graduate from Gujarat Vidyapith, started his journalism career with Doordarshan. Later, he worked with ETV Gujarati in Porbandar from 2007 to 2011. He came into limelight after he exposed a Rs 150 crore scam of illegal deforestation in Dang and Kaprada districts of Gujarat in his news show.
Furthermore, he was among the first few names to join the party in Gujarat as it challenged the 27-year strong hold of the BJP.
The first phase of polling for 89 assembly seats is being held in Gujarat today. Major seats where polling is being held in this phase include Rajkot West, Morbi, Jamnagar North, Katargam and Khambhalia. In the second phase, polling will be held on the remaining 93 seats on December 5.
Read also: Katargam Elections 2022: Can AAP’s Gopal Italia reverse BJP’s arithmetic in this Surat suburb?
