Bhupendra Bhayani, one of the five legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat, resigned on December 13 in a blow to the party ahead of the Lok Sabha election next year. The legislator is likely to join the BJP in the coming days.
Mr. Bhayani was elected from Visavadar Assembly seat in Saurashtra region in the December 2022 Assembly poll.
Also read: AAP loses all seats in polls, gets fewer votes than NOTA
After submitting his resignation to Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, Mr. Bhayani told mediapersons that “he resigned because he realised that the AAP was not a proper platform to serve the people.”
“I believe in nationalism-oriented politics. In the AAP, I was not able to serve my constituency,” he added.
His resignation has raised questions about AAP’s future in Gujarat where after its spirited performance in the last poll, it has suffered an exodus of its cadres to the Congress while its another legislator Chaitar Vasava from Dediapada is on the run after the police booked him a criminal case. Recently, the Gujarat High Court rejected his pre-arrest bail.
After Mr. Bhayani’s resignation, Gujarat AAP president Isudan Gadhvi said that BJP wanted to break the AAP in the State. “They [BJP] had been trying for a year to break the party. Today, one legislator has resigned but other four legislators are committed to the party,” he added.
In the last Assembly poll, the AAP in its maiden contest had won five seats but its impressive vote share of over 10 % ended up splitting anti-BJP votes which helped the ruling party registered its landslide win of 156 seats while the principal Opposition Congress was reduced to 17.
