Who is Isudan Gadhvi, AAP's Gujarat CM candidate?

Gadhvi's way of criticising the administrative system and the government while debating key issues and seeking accountability earned him praise among people.

From news reporting to himself becoming news, former television anchor Isudan Gadhvi, who was born in a farming family, has had a swift rise in politics and has become the Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat just a year after he joined the fledgling outfit led by Arvind Kejriwal.

Gadhvi, 40, started his career as a journalist with a local news channel around 17 years ago after acquiring a degree in journalism from the Gujarat Vidyapith, a deemed university in Ahmedabad founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920.

Just last year he joined the AAP and his big moment came on Friday when Gadhvi was declared the party's chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat, where Assembly polls for the 182-member House will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5.

The declaration was made in Ahmedabad by Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, who has been positioning his party as the main challenger of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been ruling Gujarat for more than 25 years now.

The journalist-turned-politician, a native of Pipaliya village of Devbhumi Dwarka district, was born in a farming family.

After serving as a journalist with a Gujarati TV channel in Porbandar and Gandhinagar, he took up the job of channel head of another Gujarati news channel VTV Gujarati in Ahmedabad.

Besides serving as the channel head, he was also the anchor of a show called Maha-Manthan, which became extremely popular among rural masses as Gadhvi used to prominently take up issues related to agriculture and farmers.

He was known for his aggressive style of anchoring and his on-screen personality helped him gain immense popularity among people. Gadhvi's way of criticising the administrative system and the government while debating key issues and seeking accountability earned him praise among people.

After some deliberations and persuasion from the AAP, he formally joined the party in 2021 and was recently made a national joint general secretary.

Gadhvi belongs to an Other Backward Class (OBC) community. In Gujarat, OBCs account for 48 per cent of the state's population.

Talking to reporters after he was made the AAP's CM face, Gadhvi said he decided to quit his job and take a plunge into politics as he was inspired by Kejriwal, who, too, had quit his government job to enter politics.

"Good people join politics out of compulsion, not as a hobby. We have to enter the system to clean it up. I am entering politics because I have seen the sufferings of the people of Gujarat. Even during my career as a journalist, I have always raised issues concerning farmers, unemployed youth, women, labourers and shopkeepers," he said.