Former TV anchor Isudan Gadhvi, Aam Aadmi Party's presumptive chief minister for Gujarat, lost his seat by 19,000 votes as the BJP raced to its best-ever result in the western state. AAP was leading in just five of the 182 assembly seats in the state, where polling was held in two phases on December 1 and 5.Gadhvi, the 40-year-old journalist-turned-politician, entered politics just a year back, in June 2021, and joined AAP, answering its call for change after 27 years of uninterrupted BJP rule in the state.
During the month-long whirlwind 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 his being the son of a farmer and also of AAP’s promise of “bijli, pani and daam” (power, water and remunerative prices for produce) to win the support of the agrarian community.