AAP names Italia as candidate for Gujarat’s Visavadar Assembly bypoll

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.