A Liberal Party member who toppled a controversial state MP for preselection has been forced to quit as a candidate just a day later after it was revealed he provided a character reference for a now-convicted child sex offender.

Businessman and Indian community leader Dinesh Gourisetty won the top spot on the Liberal’s Western Metropolitan ticket at the party’s Melbourne headquarters on Sunday.

With the support of the party’s moderate wing, Gourisetty defeated outspoken MP Moira Deeming and fellow upper house MP Trung Luu.

In a stunning turn on Monday, a Liberal source confirmed Gourisetty had withdrawn his candidacy.

It comes after he was found to have provided a character reference for Kashyap Patel.

In 2024, Patel pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to grooming a child under 16 years, transmitting indecent communication to a person under 16 and sexually assaulting a child under 16.

He was sentenced to nine months in prison and a two-year community correction order.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Peter Rozen KC cited the character reference Gourisetty had provided for Patel, who described Gourisetty as a “good friend”.

Following the revelations, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said Gourisetty was “not welcome on my team”.

“I have made that clear to the party organisation this morning,” she said.

Gourisetty has been contacted for comment. His social media had been deactivated on Monday afternoon.

The vote in which he won the top spot on the state party’s ticket had not yet been endorsed by the state executive.

Deeming, who declined to comment on Monday, did not put her hand up for a second position on the ticket.

The party’s state executive will need to decide whether it begins the preselection process anew, leaving the door ajar for Deeming to claim the top spot ahead of the November election.

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.

The Victorian election will be held at the end of November.

-AAP