Isudan Gadhvi will be Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) chief ministerial candidate for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, announced party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Friday. Those in the race for the post were AAP's state unit president Gopal Italia, national general secretary Isudan Gadhvi and general secretary Manoj Soratihya.
The Election Commission on Thursday declared Assembly elections in Gujarat in two phases, December 1 and 5, with counting on December 8, the same day as Himachal Pradesh. Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar defended the poll panel against allegations of bias arising out of its failure to declare elections in the two states together. The Himachal polls, scheduled on November 12, were announced on October 14. Of the 182 seats in the legislative Assembly, 89 will go to polls in the first phase and 93 in the second. There are over 4.9 crore electors eligible to vote this year. There will be more than 51,000 polling stations set up, including more than 34,000 in rural areas