Just a day before the Lok Sabha elections begin in India, in yet another blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Alpesh Kathiriya and Dharmik Malaviya have resigned from the party today.
Kathiriya, who was the regional president of the party and Surat Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader, along with Malaviya, have submitted their resignations to state party president Isudan Gadhvi.
Speculations are rife about the possibility of both joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Both Kathiriya and Malaviya were declared star campaigners for the Gujarat campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
They were the most prominent faces associated with the PAAS, along with Hardik Patel. However, after Patel’s imprisonment, both leaders took charge of the Patidar movement in 2015.
At an event in Bhavnagar in 2022, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann welcomed them to the party.
At that time, Malaviya and Kathiriya had contested the 2022 election in Surat from the Olpad and Varachha assembly seats for the AAP, respectively.
However, both faced defeat in the assembly elections.
Who is Alpesh Kathiriya?
Kathiriya hails from Gokharvala village in Amreli district. He is a lawyer-turned-politician and has been in the spotlight since 2015 when the Patidar movement was going on.
Notably, he has been accused of sedition and treason. His wife, Kavya Patel, is a BJP leader and has served as a corporator.