Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kesarisinh Solanki, representing the Matar Assembly constituency in Gujarat's Kheda district has joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after being denied a ticket for the upcoming state Assembly elections.

Informing about the development, state unit president of AAP Gopal Italia tweeted, "Kesarisinh Solanki ji, a popular, hardworking, fearless MLA of Matar Vidhan Sabha, has joined the Aam Aadmi Party today after getting inspired by the honest politics of Arvind Kejriwal. I heartily welcome Shri Kesari Sinh ji to the Aam Aadmi Party. Together we will form an honest government in Gujarat."

The saffron party released its first list of 160 candidates for the state elections on Thursday. The BJP named Kalpesh Parmar as its candidate for the Matar seat resulting in the sitting MLA switching sides.

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Solanki represented the seat for the first time in 2014 after winning the byelection soon after the then MLA Devusinh Chauhan was elected to the Lok Sabha. Chauhan is now the incumbent Minister of State for Communications in the Narendra Modi government. Solanki tasted victory again in 2017.

Meanwhile, the AAP has already declared the name of one Mahipatsinh Chauhan as its candidate for the seat. It remains to be seen which constituency will AAP choose to field its new entrant.

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With inputs from PTI