Surat: AAP hopes to put up good show after civic poll performance, fields Italia

AAP replaced Congress as the second-biggest party in the 2021 Surat municipal polls by securing about 28% vote share

Published on: Nov 10, 2022, 09:49:52 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded the party’s Gujarat chief Gopal Italia, 33, from the Katargam constituency in Surat, which has been a bastion for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat. It hopes to put up a good show after replacing Congress as the second-biggest party in the 2021 Surat municipal polls by securing about 28% vote share.

Italia was credited for AAP’s performance in the civic polls. AAP’s Gujarat general secretary Manoj Sorathiya will also contest from Surat’s Karanj seat, the party chief Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet on Wednesday.

“The participation of youth in politics is essential. In Gujarat, our state president and popular youth Gopal Italia will contest from Surat’s Katargam Assembly seat and state general secretary Manoj Sorathiya will contest elections from [the] Karanj Assembly seat. I wish all the best to both the youth,” Kejriwal tweeted on Wednesday.

Italia was in the news last month after an old video resurfaced purportedly showing him mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Modi and his mother.

In the 2017 assembly elections, BJP faced the Patidar community’s anger over reservation demands. But the BJP managed to win all 12 seats in Surat city. Surat has a sizeable presence of the Patidar community and migrant workers.

Italia was a member of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which Hardik Patel launched in 2015 to fight for the community’s reservation in government jobs and education. Patel joined the BJP this year.

AAP is seeking to make inroads into Gujarat after winning assembly elections in Punjab this year. It has sought to position itself as the main challenger to the BJP, which has ruled Gujarat for 27 years.

AAP’s performance in the civic polls was attributed to the support it received from PAAS. The party has also given tickets to PAAS convenors Alpesh Kathiriya and Dharmik Malaviya.

AAP has so far announced the names of 158 candidates for elections to the 182-member Gujarat assembly, which will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5.

Italia and Sorathiya are among the 20 star campaigners for AAP apart from Kejriwal, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, Delhi deputy chief minister, members of Parliament Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Harbhajan Singh. Isudan Gadhvi, the party chief ministerial candidate, is also among the 20.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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