Outspoken Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has been dumped from the party’s upper house ticket in a vote likely to spark fresh internal turmoil.

Deeming lost a preselection contest for top spot on the Liberals’ Western Metropolitan ticket at the party’s Melbourne headquarters on Sunday.

She and fellow upper house MP Trung Luu were defeated by businessman and Indian community leader Dinesh Gourisetty, who had support from the party’s moderate wing.

The Liberal state executive will need to endorse the vote.

Dressed in a Liberal blue-coloured jacket, Deeming left the meeting without answering questions.

She had not put her hand up for second position on the ticket.

Deeming had preselection endorsements from former prime minister Tony Abbott, Sky News commentator Peta Credlin and state Opposition Leader Jess Wilson.

Wilson made no apology for supporting Deeming’s preselection and that of other sitting incumbents over challengers.

“I back my team,” she said before the meeting.

Two Liberals were elected in the upper house region in 2022.

Support for One Nation has surged nationwide, with the right-wing party receiving almost 23 per cent of first preference votes in the South Australian state election.

Wilson would not be drawn on whether the result could prompt Deeming to defect to One Nation.

Deeming has made headlines since she was preselected by the party in 2022.

The former high-school teacher was suspended after she attended a 2023 Let Women Speak rally gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

She was later expelled from the Liberal party room after she threatened legal action against then leader John Pesutto. He was ultimately found to have defamed her by implying she was associated with neo-Nazis and ordered to pay $2.3 million in legal costs.

Deeming was welcomed back into the parliamentary party in December 2024 and named former leader Brad Battin’s representative for the western suburbs.

She offered to defer some of Pesutto’s legal bill in exchange for conditions including her preselection but the proposition was rebuffed.

The state Liberals’ administrative committee agreed to lend Pesutto $1.55 million to settle his debt to Deeming so he could avoid bankruptcy.

The loan prompted an ongoing legal challenge from a group of breakaway Liberals.

In another preselection battle, Liberal upper house leader Bev McArthur survived a challenge on Saturday from former Geelong mayor Trent Sullivan for her top spot on the Liberals’ Western Victoria ticket.

Former Burwood MP Graham Watt won second spot.

It comes after shadow cabinet member Renee Heath retained top spot in Eastern Victoria and Ann-Marie Hermans dropped to second in South-Eastern Metro behind former electorate officer Phillip Pease.

Victorians head to the polls in November, with the Coalition vying to end 12 years of Labor rule.

-AAP