Kejriwal to announce AAP's CM candidate for Gujarat Assembly polls today

The candidate will be named on the basis of opinion submitted to the party by the people of the state

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal will announce on Friday the name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, party office-bearers said.

This candidate will be named on the basis of opinion submitted to the party by the people of the state, they said.

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 name, the party said in a statement on Thursday.

Last week, 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.

"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."

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.