2 months after ex-AAP MLA defected to BJP, petitioner wants to withdraw HC plea challenging win

According to Malaviya’s allegations, Bhayani had shown his two sons as “dependents” despite them being independent with their own sources of income. It was also alleged that Bhayani had failed to declare the properties of his son.

Bhayani misled the voters through this “suppression” of information in his election form, Malaviya had submitted.
However, on Monday, Malaviya filed an application before the High Court submitting that he now wants to withdraw the election petition against Bhayani.

This comes after Bhayani resigned as an AAP legislator in December 2023 and returned to the BJP in February. At the time of his resignation, he had said that he is resigning because he wants to do “development work for the people and my constituency”.

The defection came as a setback for the Gujarat AAP that had managed to win five of the 182 Assembly seats in the state. With Bhayani’s resignation, the number of AAP MLAs had gone down to four, further sparking fears in the party that there might be more defections.

Apart from Malaviya’s plea, there are two more election petitions pending against Bhayani — one moved by Hareshbhai Karamshibhai Dobariya who had contested the 2017 Assembly elections from Visavadar under a party named All India Hindustan Congress Party, and another petition moved by Harshad Ribadiya, Bhayani’s BJP rival in 2022. Notably, prior to October 2022, Ribadiya was in the Congress and was elected Visavadar MLA on the party ticket in 2017 and 2012.

While Dobariya and Ribadiya sought that Bhayani’s election be quashed and set aside, the former also sought that fresh elections be conducted. Ribadiya, on the other hand, sought that he be declared as the winner. Ribadiya had lost to Bhayani by a margin of 7,063 votes.

All the three election petitions challenging Bhayani’s win are pending before the High Court. The court had issued a summons to Bhayani following which he had filed an application under order VII rule 11 of Code of Civil Procedure seeking dismissal of the petitions at the threshold.
The three petitions are scheduled for hearing on April 12.