With the Gujarat High Court paving the way for Visavadar Assembly bypoll in Gujarat, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday declared its leader Gopal Italia as the candidate, even as the Election Commission is yet to announce the byelection date.
The Visavadar seat in Junagadh district, which has been lying vacant since December 2023 when Bhupendra Bhayani resigned as the AAP MLA and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The AAP’s core team in Gujarat will also meet the party’s national convener, Arvind Kejriwal, in New Delhi on Sunday to “prepare a strategy for the upcoming assembly elections under his leadership,” the party said without giving details.
The Gujarat High Court on March 10 disposed of an election petition filed by BJP leader Harshad Ribadiya in February 2023, challenging (then AAP MLA) Bhayani’s victory from the Visavadar seat in the 2022 assembly polls, paving the way for its by-election.
The High Court disposed of the election petition after Ribadiya, who was defeated by Bhayani in the 2022 election, withdrew the plea.
In a post on X on Sunday, the AAP announced the name of its national joint secretary and former Gujarat unit president, Italia, as the candidate for the byelection to the Visavadar assembly seat.
Visavadar in Junagadh district was one of the five seats won by Aam Aadmi Party in the 2022 assembly election.
“An advocate by profession, Italia has been playing an active role for many years for the benefit of farmers. He has fought to improve the deteriorating law and order situation in Gujarat and remove corruption in the system,” AAP leader Manoj Sorathia said in a statement.
Not only Aam Aadmi Party, but the public of Gujarat is also hopeful that Italia will win with a record-breaking majority, he said.
Meanwhile, the AAP’s core team in Gujarat will meet the party’s national convener, Arvind Kejriwal, in Delhi on Sunday to “prepare a strategy for the upcoming assembly elections under Kejriwal’s leadership,” the party said.
Apart from the strategy for the bypolls to Visavadar and Kadi, which was recently vacated due to the death of its sitting BJP MLA Karsanbhai Solanki, and local body elections, the team will also discuss how to “further strengthen and expand the organisation in Gujarat,” it said.
The Election Commission had conducted by-elections to five out of six assembly segments that fell vacant after the MLAs winning the seats in December 2022 resigned, but decided not to declare a bypoll to the Visavadar seat due to the pending election petition.
