Former cop Gopal Italia who hurled shoe at BJP minister appointed AAP's Gujarat president

Gopal Italia, a former policeman who is known for hurling a shoe at a BJP minister in 2017, was appointed the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Gujarat president on Saturday.

In his early 30s, Italia was part of the Patidar agitation for reservation along with Hardik Patel, who is now the working president of the Congress in Gujarat.

A native of Timba village in Umrala taluka of Bhavnagar district, Italia was appointed Gujarat AAP's vice-president earlier this year.

A press note issued by the AAP said that he is a political science graduate from the Gujarat University.

In 2012, Italia joined the Gujarat police as a constable at the Madhupura police station in Ahmedabad and worked for four years before joining as a revenue clerk at the Ahmedabad collectorate.

He shot to fame in 2017 after his telephone conversation with Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel went viral in which he could be heard complaining about the ineffective prohibition law in the state. He impersonated a cop while talking to Patel for which he was arrested by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch.

In the same year, he was suspended from service after he hurled a shoe at Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja.

Besides Italia's appointment, the party also appointed actor Nikita Rawal as party's state spokesperson and ex-journalist Tuli Banerjee has been given the charge of state media coordinator.