Ahmedabad, Feb 3 (PTI) Months after resigning as a member of the Gujarat legislative assembly, former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Bhupendra Bhayani joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a function held in Junagadh district on Saturday.

Bhayani, who represented the Visavadar seat in Junagadh as an AAP MLA, had resigned from the post and the party in December last year and announced that he would join the BJP.

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As per a release issued by the BJP, Bhayani and his supporters joined the saffron party in the presence of state BJP president CR Paatil at a function in Bhesan village.

Speaking to reporters, Bhayani said, "This is my homecoming because I was with the BJP before being elected as an MLA. Our country is progressing under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I am joining the BJP to develop my constituency, not to get a post or poll ticket."

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He expressed confidence that irrespective of the candidate the BJP chooses for the by-election, the people of Visavadar will make the saffron party victorious with a huge margin.

Bhayani was one of the five MLAs of the AAP elected in the 2022 assembly polls, which the BJP won with a thumping majority by bagging 156 seats in the 182-member assembly.

It was the first time the AAP won seats in the assembly polls in Gujarat.

At that time, Bhayani, who served as the sarpanch of Bhesan village before joining the AAP ahead of the state polls, had claimed the AAP was not the right platform to serve people and nationalists like him could not remain with the party for long.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)