The AAP flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Ahmedabad: A year after the party registered its first victory on five assembly seats, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party suffered its first setback on Wednesday as one of its MLAs, Bhupendra Bhayani, resigned as a legislator. He is likely to join the ruling BJP anytime soon.
Bhayani tendered his resignation before Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary in Gandhinagar. The letter stated that he was resigning from the assembly, and the resignation has been accepted. Reacting to Bhayani's decision, AAP's Gujarat president Isudan Gadhvi said, "It is sad that the BJP, despite having 156 seats, is pressurizing our MLAs to join them."
"Instead of eradicating corruption and cases of fake IPS, IAS, fake government offices, the BJP is pressurizing our five MLAs to leave the party and join them. I apologize to the voters of Visavadar who voted for AAP; the BJP is imposing another election on them. As far as our MLA (Bhayani) is concerned, the BJP had taken him away days after his victory a year ago. I had explained to him how the BJP will render him useless," Gadhvi told reporters in a press conference.
Gadhvi added that despite having 156 seats, "the BJP leaders are meeting AAP MLAs every day, pressurizing and torturing them to resign and join BJP." He alleged, "BJP wants to end democracy by throttling the opposition."
In the December 2022 Assembly polls, Bhayani and four other AAP candidates, including Chaitar Vasava, Hemant Khava, Sudhir Vaghani, and Umesh Makwana, won. The ruling BJP came back to power with 156 seats, a historic number, in the house of 182 seats. Vasava, a tribal leader, has been underground for over a month following an FIR against him, his wife, and others for allegedly attacking forest officials.
The party recently announced that Vasava will be contesting the Lok Sabha election slated to be held early next year. The party has alleged that the BJP was targeting Vasava since he has a chance to win the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, which would foil the BJP's hat trick of winning all 26 parliamentary seats.