DPW PKB Usung Acep Adang Ruchiat Cawagub West Java, Approaching Gerindra-Golkar Bangun Poros

Candidate for Deputy Governor of West Java from PKB Acep Adang Ruchiat gave a statement in Bandung, Monday (29/7/2024). (ANTARA/Ricky Prayoga)

The Regional Leadership Council (DPW) of the West Java National Awakening Party (PKB) revealed that the coalition was the reason Acep Adang Ruchiat was promoted as a candidate for Deputy Governor of West Java. The chairman of the West Java PKB DPW, Syaiful Huda, revealed that so far his party has directed a coalition with parties that have a larger number of legislative seats than them, therefore it was decided to take steps to nominate as representatives. In yesterday's legislative election, PKB received 15 seats, above it, the Gerindra Party ranks first with 20 seats, followed by PKS and Golkar with 19 seats, then PDIP with 17 seats. "Well, the development of our communication with several parties and coincidentally what we built for communication was the party above the PKB. That's why we took it as a cawagub," said Syaiful Huda in Bandung, as reported by Antara, Monday, July 29. The communication that has been built by PKB is currently with the Gerindra, Golkar, PKS and PDIP parties. "Therefore, the axis is in the four parties," he said. The choice of Acep Adang Ruchiat, he said, was because he was a person who had a background as a santri, caretaker of a boarding school and had experience as a member of the legislature, who was considered quite representative of the characteristics of West Java voters, especially those based on religious sentiment. Moreover, according to him, until now there has been no future governor or deputy governor candidate who has a background such as Acep Adang Ruchiat. "People will choose because there are sentiments of background similarity lately, in this case religion and so on and Kang Acep can present it, feel that no one has represented this. What now appears for Cagub such as Ridwan Kamil, Dedi Mulyadi, Ahmad Syaikhu and Ono Surono, on average the background does not have a religious basis and represents a group of students or Islam. So it takes Acep Kang to complete it," he said. Acep Adang Ruchiat admitted that he was honored to get the trust of the PKB DPW which appointed him as a candidate for Deputy Governor. After being promoted to run for the West Java gubernatorial election, Adang admitted that he would immediately conduct socialization to a number of areas in West Java. "We will carry out gathering activities, starting from Cirebon, East and West Priangan to other places, to meet kiyai, ulama, community leaders and mass organizations, in the framework of how to build synergies together to build a better West Java in the future," he said. When asked about who the ideal West Java gubernatorial candidate for him is, Acep Adang admitted that everything was handed over to DPW.

"Earlier, the DPW chairman has signaled that we are approaching two political parties, which today are quite significant in West Java, namely Gerindra and Golkar, maybe between the two," he said.