Arvind Kejriwal, the party’s chief ministerial face in Gujarat, announced Isudan Gadhvi on Friday. The Delhi CM, confident of winning the Gujarat elections, stated that he is not announcing the chief ministerial state, but rather the state’s next CM.
Gadhvi is a well-known TV journalist and anchor in Gujarat. His show ‘Mahamanthan’ on VTV News was scheduled to air from 8-9pm but was extended to 9.30pm due to popular demand, with ratings remaining high.
“The show had lakhs of viewers. People gave a lot of love and when the show shifted outdoors from the studio, hundreds of people would gather. Farmers, particularly, saw a messiah in me,” says Gadhvi, who often describes himself as a ‘Nayak’ holding the promise of hope and justice for people. Apart from that one show, Gadhvi also did a weekly programme on Sunday to ‘preserve Dharmik Sanskriti’.
The 40-year-old Gadhvi comes from a prosperous farming family in Dwarka district’s Pipaliya village, and as his surname suggests, he belongs to the Gadhvi caste, which is one of Gujarat’s other backward castes.
In addition, OBCs make up 48% of the population in Gujarat. Apart from Gadhvi’s popularity and clean image, this factor may tip the scales in his favour.