Khambhalia: In a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party, its chief ministerial face in Gujarat Isudan Gadhvi – a popular journalist – lost the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022 from Khambhalia seat to his BJP rival Ayar Mulubhai Hardasabhai Bera by over 19000 votes. As per reports, Gadhvi, who contested from Khambhalia seat, lost to BJP’s Hardasabhai Bera, who got 10 per cent more votes than the AAP leader.
The AAP was leading in only five of the state’s 182 assembly seats, which went to polls in two phases on December 1 and 5. June 2021, and joined AAP, answering its call for change after 27 years of uninterrupted BJP rule in the state.
He was appointed as the national joint general secretary of the party and was announced as the CM candidate of AAP by party chief Arvind Kejriwal in November this year. AAP had asked people to give their opinion about the CM candidate to the party through social media, SMS and email. More than 70 percent of the respondents expressed their opinion in favor of Gadhvi.
During the stormy month-long election campaign, Gadhvi was the party’s star campaigner along with Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann. During the campaign, Gadhvi spoke of AAP’s promise of “Bijli, Pani aur Daam” (remunerative prices for electricity, water and produce) to win the support of the farming community, himself being the son of a farmer. But it failed to strike a chord with voters, who were unwilling to trust someone without any experience in politics or administration.
The AAP failed to garner enough support to win the election, but in many places captured the vote share of the Congress, leading to victories of BJP candidates in closely contested seats. The Kejriwal-led party now has an opportunity to repeat the experiment of Punjab, where it came to power in the second attempt after failing in the first attempt.
A political observer said that for Gadhvi, the real challenge would be to stay relevant and emerge as a leader of the people. Gadhvi will be challenged to build a solid cadre base of the party at the booth and block level to take on the well-oiled election machinery of the BJP and the Congress in the state.
His previous incarnation as a renowned television anchor and journalist helped him easily connect with the masses during the election campaign. Gadhvi, a native of Piplia village in Devbhoomi Dwarka district, was born in a family of farmers. He belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, which constitutes 48 per cent of the state’s population.
Gadhvi started her career as a journalist with a local news channel about 17 years ago after obtaining a degree in journalism from Gujarat Vidyapeeth, a deemed university in Ahmedabad established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920.
He started his career as a journalist in Doordarshan before moving to a channel in Porbandar. During this tenure, he did some investigative stories against illegal deforestation, which brought him into limelight.
In 2015, he took over as the Channel Head of another Gujarati news channel ‘VTV Gujarati’ in Ahmedabad. He was also the anchor of a show called ‘Maha-Manthan’, which became very popular among the rural masses as Gadhvi prominently raised issues related to agriculture and farmers.
He was also known for his aggressive anchoring style and his on-screen persona helped him gain immense popularity among the masses. His criticism of the administrative system and government, while debating key issues and demanding accountability, won him public acclaim.