The party made the announcement following a campaign during which people were asked to send their suggestions on who should be the AAP’s CM face.
Isudan Gadhvi -- Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat -- will contest the Assembly polls from Khambhalia seat in his home district of Devbhumi Dwarka, the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday.
"Isudan Gadhvi, who for years raised his voice for farmers, unemployed youth, women, businessmen, will contest election from Jam Khambhalia! Gujarat will get a new and good chief minister from the holy land of Lord Krishna," the Delhi Chief Minister said in the tweet in Hindi.
Responding to it, Gadhvi tweeted, "The faith you and the people of Gujarat have placed in me, I assure that I will serve the people of Gujarat till my last breath. Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat!"
The party made the announcement following a crowd-sourcing campaign during which people were asked to send their suggestions on who should be the AAP’s CM face. Kejriwal had launched the crowdsourcing campaign on October 29.
Prior to the Assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP had conducted a similar survey in which Bhagwant Mann had emeged as the clear and popular choice. Mann went on to become the chief minister after the AAP’s landslide win.
Presently, Khambhalia is held by Congress MLA Vikram Madam, who won in 2017 against the BJP’s Kalu Chavda by a margin of over 11,000 votes. Khambhalia was a BJP seat from 2007 to 2014, which was taken over the Congress in the 2014 bypolls. This time too, the Congress has reposed its faith on Madam while the BJP has fielded Mulu Bera.
Gadhvi, a former TV journalist, was named the party's CM candidate on November 4 based on the result of a poll conducted by the AAP. The party's Gujarat unit president Gopal Italia and general secretary Majoj Sorathiya were also in the race.
Gadhvi, who hails from an agricultural family from Dwarka district, had received around 73 per cent votes (in the poll for the CM face), leaving Italia and Sorathiya behind in the race.
With this, the AAP has so far announced the names of 175 candidates for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly.
Khambhalia will go to polls along with 88 other seats on December 1 in the first phase of two-phase Gujarat elections. For the first phase, the last date of filing nomination forms is November 14 and the last date for withdrawal of forms is November 17.
The second phase of polls will take place on December 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.
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 "Isudan Gadhvi - File Photo")
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