AAP names Gopal Italia as candidate for Visavadar assembly bypoll; EC yet to announce date

Ahmedabad: With the Gujarat High Court paving the way for Visavadar assembly bypoll in Gujarat, the 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 HC 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 AAP 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 AAP, 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.

Ribadiya's lawyer withdrew the election petition on the ground that Bhayani had already tendered his resignation before the competent authority on December 13, 2023, making the petition (against him) infructuous.

In October last year, the high court had rejected a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking a direction to the EC to hold a bypoll to the vacant assembly seat of Visavadar.

The court had noted the by-election to that constituency cannot be held in view of the pendency of a petition filed by a losing candidate against the winning nominee.