Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi has decided to contest from the seat where he is locked in a triangular contest with sitting Congress MLA Vikram Madam and BJP’s Mulubhai Bera.
Gadhvi, a popular Gujarati news anchor before entering politics by joining AAP, has a good image and has emerged as his party’s chief campaigner in the state, but the social equation in the constituency is a challenge for him, the elections observers say. Madam, a veteran politician and former Lok Sabha MP, and Bera, a former minister in the state government, come from the Ahir community, the largest caste in the seat where Muslim votes are also important.
Election watchers say caste will play an important role in deciding vote preference and the AAP leader, whose community is minuscule in numbers, Gadhvi, is at a disadvantage and may prefer the Muslim Congress. However, Gadhvi has projected himself as a farmer’s son who would work for all and not promote community identity.
AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has claimed that Gadhvi will win with a record margin.
Both Congress and BJP workers have claimed that the contest is between their two parties and AAP will come third in the fight.
However, AAP members say that traditionally the two big parties have been ‘shocked’ by his party’s entry.
The BJP won the seat in 2007 and 2012, but lost it to the Congress in the 2014 bypoll. The opposition party had retained the seat in 2017.
Khambhalia Devbhoomi falls in Dwarka district, which is a part of the Saurashtra region, where polling is scheduled on December 1 in the first phase of the Gujarat elections.
The second phase is to be held on December 5 and the counting of votes is to take place on December 8.
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