A lawsuit has been filed against the current American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) chief Jagan Ailinani demanding that he be barred from appointing a particular member as president-elect.

Sampat Shivangi, who withdrew his candidacy and then re-entered the fray to become president-elect of the influential American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) - that has over 25,000 members - filed the lawsuit along with two others.

Shivangi demanded that Ailinani be barred from appointing the former's opponent S. Balasubramaniam.

In what has become a complicated election scenario for AAPI ahead of its Annual Convention in Houston June 15-19, two members, Dinesh C. Ghiya, and Gopal Panvelkar, joined Shivangi in the lawsuit saying they voted for Shivangi and want him reinstated as president-elect for 2006-2007.

They said putting Balasubramaniam as president-elect for that year would mean disenfranchising them.

The lawsuit has been filed against AAPI, its current president Jagan Ailinani, and the 2006 president-elect S. Balasubramaniam in the Circuit Court of the Eighteenth Judicial District, Du Page County, Illinois, by their attorneys Fox, Hefter, Swibel, Levin & Carroll, LLP.

It outlines two counts for their action:

1. Count 1 is brought by Ghiya and Panvelkar who say they voted for Shivangi for the office of president-elect of AAPI. "Despite the fact that both the original vote count and a recount showed that Shivangi won the election, AAPI's current president intends, at the organisation's annual convention, to install Shivangi's opponent as president-elect, thus depriving the plaintiffs of the benefit of their votes and depriving AAPI, a majority of whose members voted for Shivangi, of the right to choose its own officers.

2. Count 2 is brought by Shivangi "to secure the office to which he was elected". "The plaintiffs seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in addition to a permanent injunction and declaratory relief," the brief says.

Shivangi supplied a copy of the brief to IANS.

Shivangi and the two other plaintiffs maintain that the decision to appoint Balasubramaniam for 2006 would be in violation of AAPI's own bylaws.

Shivangi's displacement resulted from information surfacing about his lack of credentials to practice in the United States. Balasubramaniam contended that this made him ineligible to run for president-elect.

However, the votes were cast in the midst of the controversy and Shivangi first withdrew his name despite the election count making him a winner, saying he was keeping the interests of the larger organisation in doing so. However, soon after, he withdrew his withdrawal saying he had been pressured to quit and that members of AAPI who had voted for him had encouraged him to stand his ground.