Hyderabad: Telangana's controversial BJP leader T Raja Singh has won from his home constituency, Goshamal in Hyderabad district for the third consecutive time. Singh had won the last two Assembly elections in 2014 and 2018 from this seat.
Singh has defeated Bharat Rashtra Samithi's (BRS) Nand Kishore Vyas by a margin of 21457 votes while Mogili Sunitha of Congress is in the third position. Party workers attributed his victory to his popularity in the area. He is known for his derogatory speeches against Muslims and is termed as a habitual offender in police records.
Earlier, the BJP leader earned the party's wrath for his alleged derogatory comments against Prophet Mohammed. He was suspended by the BJP and was even lodged in jail for two and a half months in this connection. However, later BJP revoked his suspension and gave him a ticket from Goshamal.
Goshamal is the only constituency that the BJP managed to retain last time although it lost four other seats. Also, it is the only seat in Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency that is not dominated by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Singh started his political career as a municipal councillor from Telugu Desam Party in 2009. He joined the BJP when the state spit and was elected as an MLA in 2014. Again, in 2018, among the five sitting BJP MLAs who contested, he was the only one who won.
He has around 100 criminal cases against him of which, 18 are communal cases. He had also been arrested in the past for his remarks on Hindu Rashtra.
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