The vocal critic of Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi - Gopal Italia was appointed as the vice-president of Aam Aadmi Party in Gujarat on Sunday, reported The Indian Express.
Italia had recently joined the AAP in the virtual presence of senior national party leader Gopal Rai. While joining the party, Italia had said that he'd joined AAP because it is a party of educated leaders adding that "only an educated leadership can give a new direction to the political system."
Let's have a look at who is the newly appointed vice-president of Gujarat's AAP.
Italia is a political science graduate and belongs to the Timbi village from the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat.
Before beginning his political career, he worked as a clerk in the revenue department in Gujarat.
Now, here's something interesting. Italia made headlines when he hurled a shoe at the Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja in March 2017. But this did not end up well for Italia as after the incident, he was detained by the police and was also dismissed from service for violation of service rules.
He was posted at the office of Dhandhuka taluka Sub-Divisional Magistrate under Ahmedabad Collectorate at the time of the incident.
Italia after the incident said that he had approached the Minister several times in the past with complaints against liquor mafia but Jadeja kept ignoring his plea.
Check out the video here:
Italia was a member of the Lok Rakshak Dal, a government body created to strengthen the state police force, until 2015.
In January 2017, he was arrested by the Ahmedabad crime branch for allegedly impersonating as a police constable to call up the Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel. He allegedly circulated audio clips of the conversation on various social media platforms.
Italia had purportedly told Patel that a recent ordinance to strengthen the liquor prohibition law in the state has failed to serve the purpose, as it has ended up in increasing the price of liquor in the dry state.
After these two incidents, he became quite famous among the youth of Gujarat and also worked with Hardik Patel in Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS).
In 2018, he also held week-long 'Kayda Katha' in Surat to spread awareness among people on the Constitution and various laws. The program was held several times after that. As per the Facebook event of the program, it was held "In response to growing violence around religious/political identities and revolved around the intersection of law and its cultural pervasiveness."
(With inputs from PTI)
