Ahmedabad (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA representing the Matar Assembly constituency in Gujarat's Kheda district has joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after the ruling party denied a ticket to him from his seat for the upcoming Assembly elections.

Kesarisinh Solanki, who had won the election twice from the seat, joined the AAP, said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's state unit president Gopal Italia on Twitter.

"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," Italia said in a tweet late Thursday night. The tweet carried a photograph, which showed Italia welcoming Solanki.

The ruling BJP, which on Thursday released its first list of 160 candidates for the state elections, has named Kalpesh Parmar as its candidate for the Matar seat, which was represented by Solanki in 2014 and 2017.

Solanki had won the bye-election to the seat in 2014 after the then MLA Devusinh Chauhan won the Lok Sabha election. Chauhan is currently the Union Minister of State for Communications.

Solanki had also won the 2017 Assembly election from the constituency on the BJP ticket.

The AAP has already declared the name of one Mahipatsinh Chauhan as its candidate for the seat.

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Chennai (PTI): Vijay-led TVK secured an impressive 108 seats trouncing the incumbent DMK led by M K Stalin which finished with only 59 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections held on April 23, as per the final tally of the ECI on Tuesday.

The opposition AIADMK won 47 seats while its allies the PMK obtained 4 and the BJP and AMMK clinched one seat each respectively in the election, according to the data available on the Election commission of India's website.

The DMK's allies - the Congress managed to win 5 seats, the IUML, CPI, CPI (M), and VCK: 2 each and DMDK secured one seat, among a total of 234 Assembly constituencies in the state.

The votes were taken up for counting on May 4 and the final tally was announced on Tuesday.

Actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam on Monday created a record of sorts in the electoral history of Tamil Nadu and emerged as the single largest party by delivering a shock defeat to DMK and its president Stalin in his Kolathur constituency, while the AIADMK was pushed to a distant third spot.

Vijay won from both Perambur and Tiruchirappalli East constituencies.

The TVK has clocked nearly 35 per cent (34.92) vote share in its debut polls.

This will be the first time in Tamil Nadu that a party will assume power a little over two years after its founding in February 2024.