AAP Gujarat chief by day, news show host by evening — Isudan Gadhvi prepares for ‘double role’

New Delhi: Isudan Gadhvi, AAP’s chief ministerial face in the 2022 Gujarat assembly election, is gearing up for a “double role” like no other.

Come December, the president of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Gujarat unit will host a prime time news show, “at least four to five days a week”.

“I am not boasting but it is a fact that when my show ‘Mahamanthan’ used to be aired, families and neighbours used to sit together and watch it like people used to watch ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’ once upon a time. I can guarantee that within three months of its launch, my new show will be as popular,” Gadhvi told ThePrint Tuesday.

With Gadhvi relaunching his career as a media person, the party is hoping to arrest the rapid erosion of its base in the state by riding on his popularity as a news presenter.

It was his stardom as a TV anchor among the Gujarati masses, especially in the rural belts, that had prompted the AAP to not only rope in Gadhvi in June 2021, but also to make him the face of its high-octane campaign and emerge as a serious challenger in the state’s bipolar polity dominated by the BJP and the Congress.

Before joining the AAP, Gadhvi had quit his job as a news anchor for the Gujarati channel VTV. “But this time, I will play a double role. I will very much remain the president of the AAP Gujarat. During daytime, I will continue to work for the party. In the evening, I will go to the office of the media channel which will telecast my show. It is perhaps for the first time that such an arrangement is being worked out,” he said.

Gadhvi’s decision to return to his old turf comes at a critical juncture for the AAP in Gujarat, where it bagged five seats in the December 2022 assembly polls, with a vote share of 12.92 percent. Gadhvi had lost to BJP’s Ayar Mulubhai Hardasbhai Bera by over 18,000 votes at Khambalia in Devbhoomi Dwarka district.

Over the last 11 months, the AAP’s presence in Gujarat appeared to shrink further, with four out of its 11 vice-presidents quitting the party. A prominent tribal face of the AAP in Gujarat, Praful Vasava resigned from the party in July, opposing the central leadership’s announcement that it would support a proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country.

Adding to its woes, earlier this month, the Gujarat Police booked Chaitar Vasava, the AAP’s Gujarat working president who represents Dediapada constituency that he won by a margin of 40,282 votes, for allegedly intimidating officials of the forest department and firing one round in the air.

He is among the very few AAP leaders in the state with popular appeal intact, as was evident from a recent foot march he led through eight tribal districts. Vasava was protesting against alleged irregularities in a contractual teacher recruitment programme of the Gujarat government.

Gadhvi claims the idea to return to television, or at least some form of it, occurred to him after “Gujarati news channels started denying air time to the AAP, and even refusing to call our spokespersons to their shows”.

“Initially, I thought of launching a YouTube channel as not many television channels would show the courage to give me space. Later, some channels showed interest and now talks are in the final stages with one channel. The party leadership also agrees with me that it will not be detrimental to the AAP’s interests,” he said.

In August, Gadhvi had created a flutter by announcing that a seat-sharing between the AAP and the Congress was on the cards for the 2023 Lok Sabha election. But the Congress downplayed this, saying it was too early to take a call. 

For now, Gadhvi has his priorities set. “I am exploring a few names for the new show including ‘Shankhnaad’, ‘Lalkaar’. I am yet to finalise one though. But the show will be as popular as my previous one within three months is what I can guarantee you,” he asserted.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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