Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal will announce on Friday the name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections on the basis of opinions given by the people of the state, party office-bearers said on Thursday.
On October 29, Kejriwal had urged people to contact the party through SMS, WhatsApp, voice mail and e-mail to give their views about who should be the CM candidate from the party in the state, which is currently being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He had said that people could submit their points of view till November 3 evening and on the basis of their opinions, the name of the party's chief ministerial face would be announced the next day.
Those in the race for the top post from the AAP include its state unit president Gopal Italia, national general secretary Isudan Gadhvi and general secretary Manoj Soratihya, party sources said.
Kejriwal is scheduled to hold a press conference in Ahmedabad on Friday to announce the results, the party said in a statement.
"We will announce the result on November 4," he had said last Saturday. At that time, Kejriwal had also said, "During the Punjab elections, we had asked people as to who should be the next chief minister. People named Bhagwant Mann by a huge majority. And as per the wishes of the public, we made him chief minister." Meanwhile, the AAP on Thursday announced its ninth list of 10 candidates for the Gujarat polls, taking the number of candidates whose names have been announced so far to 118.
Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases next month - on December 1 and 5, while votes will be counted on December 8. The state will witness a three-cornered contest - among the ruling BJP, opposition Congress and AAP.
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