Meet Gopal Italia, Ex-AAP Gujarat President Who Defeated BJP’s Kirit Patel To Bag Visavadar Assembly Bypoll

Ahmedabad: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Gopal Italia won the Visavadar seat as counting for Gujarat bypolls concluded on Monday (June 23). Italia defeated his nearest rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kirit Patel, by a margin of 17,554 votes.

As per the data shared by the Election Commission, Italia received 75,942 votes, while Patel got 58,388 votes after the end of total of 21 rounds of counting. The Visavadar seat fell vacant in December 2023 after the then-AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP.

Notably, the bypolls to two assembly seats - Visavadar and Kadi - were held on June 19. In the Kadi seat of Mehsana district, reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates, BJP's Rajendra Chavda emerged victorious by a margin of 39,452 votes.

Who Is Gopal Italia?

Born on July 21, 1989, in Gujarat's Botad, Italia is a former police official who became popular in January 2017 when serving as a government employee, he called up Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and complained to him about the open violation of the alcohol prohibition policy in the state. In March 2017, he again hit the headlines after he reportedly hurled a shoe at Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja and shouted 'down with corruption'.

Before joining the politics, he was active in the Patidar reservation agitation. Between 2018 and 2020, Italia was associated with the social organisation Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS). In 2018, Italia even organised Kayda Katha public meetings to raise legal awareness. In June 2020, he joined the AAP. Italia was state vice president. In December same year, he became the party's Gujarat unit president.

Under Italia's tenure as president of the AAP Gujarat, the party debuted in the February 2021 Gujarat local body elections. In these polls, the AAP won 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation and one in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation. In 2022 he was re-appointed as the president of AAP Gujarat ahead of the 2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election. He remained the AAP's Gujarat unit president till January 2023.