How a mother’s tragedy made star TV host a politician and now AAP’s Gujarat CM candidate

Isudan Gadhvi says pandemic made him realise he had to look beyond journalism. OBC credentials may serve him well in Gujarat where nearly half of population belongs to the category.

Isudan Gadhvi speaks Friday after he is declared AAP's CM candidate for Gujarat polls | ANI

Ahmedabad/New Delhi: It was the Delta variant of the coronavirus that changed the life of Isudan Gadhvi, the new-anointed chief ministerial candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat.

A celebrated journalist back then in Gujarat, he was shaken up by the devastating impact of Covid. Inefficiency of the state machinery made him furious. His mother got infected.  Hospitals were in chaos with long queues of patients outside. He managed to get medical help for his mother at home. As he was tending to her, Gadhvi also got infected. Fortunately, both mother and son recovered.

Many others were not so fortunate. One day, Gadhvi saw a woman sitting outside an Ahmedabad hospital with the body of her 20-year-old son in her lap and wailing.

The hospital had refused to admit him because they had come in a private vehicle. The government had decided that only those patients who came through the 108 (helpline) ambulance service would be admitted in hospitals.

Isudan Gadhvi traced the officer who was behind the ambulance rule, and made public his mobile number. “The officer got 10,000 calls on his mobile. He went to the high court for reprieve. It was after that incident that I started thinking that I had to do something beyond journalism,” Gadhvi told ThePrint last week.

The plunge came soon, as he joined the AAP in June 2021.

He has been on the roads since then. The 40-year-old leader has held 1,200 meetings in the past 14 months, going all across Gujarat twice and clocking about 1.05 lakh km on the roads.

When AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal declared him the party’s Gujarat chief ministerial candidate on Friday, it didn’t surprise many.

Isudan Gadhvi is the party’s best bet in Gujarat where it is projecting itself as the harbinger of change. The 40-year-old AAP leader is a household name in the state, thanks to his popular prime time show, Mahamanthan, on VTV Gujarati where he would take up farmers’ issues, corruption cases, school fees, et al.

A doting father of two sons who study in Class V and X, Gadhvi has deep interest in the state of affairs in the education sector.

Every Sunday, he would do a show on what he said was “an effort to protect culture.” So he would do an episode on ‘Lord Hanuman’s history’, Karma ka Siddhant (principles of Karma), and ‘old-age homes’, among others. He would even invite sants and mahants in his Sunday shows.

“Mahamanthan became popular like Ramayana and Mahabharata. People would leave everything to watch it,” Gadhvi, fondly addressed as Isubhai, recalled.

So much so that he had to increase the show duration from one to one-and-a-half hours. He would get invitations from Gujaratis settled abroad to come to the US and other countries but he declined. Gadhvi says that he doesn’t want to go out of Gujarat and so hasn’t got his passport made.

His popularity as a TV show host is coming handy as Gadhvi hits the road as a politician. During a roadshow in Limbdi, about 100 km south-west of Ahmedabad, last Tuesday, people rushed to touch and shake hands with him.

For Isudan Gadhvi, 15 April is usually eventful. It’s on 15 April 2015 that he became a bureau chief. It was on the same date in 2016 that he became a TV channel head. It’s usually on 15 April that he would get offers from other TV channels.

But, there is a tragedy associated with that date though. His father passed away on 15 April 2014. His father had kidney ailment and Gadhvi had taken a long leave from his channel to tend to his father. He wanted to quit the job to stay with him but his father, a farmer, dissuaded him — ‘Go back and serve the people’.

Gadhvi may, therefore, not mind a change of date to look forward to new things in his life and career. Kejriwal declared him the CM candidate on 4 November.

Humble beginnings

Born in Pipaliya village in Gujarat’s Dwarka district, Gadhvi studied in Jamnagar before moving to Ahmedabad to do Masters in journalism. He got his first break in ETV, Hyderabad.

Gadhvi proudly talks about his journalistic works, including exposing illegal deforestation, illegal constructions and mining thefts, which led to the imprisonment of many bureaucrats and politicians.

The AAP leader doesn’t believe in playing caste politics but if it comes to that, he may have an advantage. Like ghazal and bhajan singers Pankaj and Manhar Udhas, he belongs to the Charan Gadhvi community, an OBC (Other Backward Class).

“Charan Gadhvis are known for their singing and oratorial skills. They used to advise kings aur jubaan ke pakke hote hain (and are men of their words),” says Ishubhai.

The OBCs constitute nearly half of Gujarat’s population. Charan Gadhvis are known as Deviputras. Kuladevis of many other communities, including influential Leuva Patel, are Charam Gadhvis, Gadhvi informs.

Therefore, even if he doesn’t believe in caste politics, the AAP leader has got the right credentials in electoral politics.

(Edited by Tony Rai)