2022 Gujarat Election: AAP CM Candidate Isudan Gadhvi Loses Khambhalia Seat

Isudan Gadhvi was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Ayar Mulubhai.

Isudan Gadhvi. 

(Photo: The Quint)

The Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate for the 2022 Gujarat Assembly Elections, Isudan Gadhvi, lost his seat for the Khambhalia constituency on Thursday, 8 December.

Gadhvi was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Ayar Mulubhai Bera by a margin of 18,745 votes.

Why is he important?: Apart from being the AAP's chief ministerial face and the National Joint General Secretary, Gadhvi was a household name in Gujarat long before he even joined the AAP. Formerly a prominent journalist with ETV Gujarati, Gadhvi exposed a Rs 150 crore scam of trees being illegally cut in Dang and Kaprada district.

Gadhvi has officially been in the party for just about 18 months, unlike the party's state president Gopal Italia and Manoj Sorathiya, who have been around for longer and were also among the potential CM faces.

The big gamble? Gadhvi's nomination as the CM candidate was seen as a big gamble given that he is not a Patidar.

However, an AAP functionary had expressed confidence in this decision, telling The Quint that "when the Patidar Ananmat Aandolan Samiti (PAAS) was active from 2015-2017, Isudan was their voice in the state and the community knows that."

Why is the Khambalia constituency important? In the 2017 Assembly election, this constituency was won by Vikram Madam of the Congress party, who had defeated the BJP's Kalu Chavda by more than 11,000 votes.

This seat, however, had gone to the Congress' Ahir Meraman Markhi during the 2014 by-election and before that, for seven years from 2007 to 2014, Khambhalia had voted the BJP to power.