Goshamahal MLA T. Raja Singh | Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ignored the suspended leader and MLA from Goshamahal, T. Raja Singh for a long time, and the time seems to have come where it is left with no option but to lift the suspension as it gets ready to announce the first list of names for the Telangana Assembly elections 2023.
Sources said the BJP high command is considering lifting the suspension and fielding him from the Goshamahal constituency in the heart of Hyderabad city and surrounded by the constituencies represented by the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
The BJP state president and Union Minister, G. Kishan Reddy dropped enough hints with the media, indicating that the party would look into lifting the suspension of its lone MLA elected in the 2018 elections and later suspended for his outrageous comments on Prophet Mohammed. The Central Election Committee is said to have discussed the issue when it met on Friday night in New Delhi.
Mr. Singh, known to make provocative statements, was suspended from the party in August 2022 after the police arrested him for his alleged statements that hurt the religious sentiments of the minority community. He was booked under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act for his comments in a YouTube video. It was the time when the BJP was already grappling with the Nupur Sharma episode and the subsequent threats to her life. The Central government was also under pressure over it with several other countries expressing concern over the developments.
Though Mr. Singh was released from prison in November 2022 after the Telangana High Court set aside his arrest under the PD Act, he had been maintaining silence. Several Hindu groups too tried to pressurise the BJP to lift the suspension but that did not come through. In fact, Mr. Singh turned philosophical at times, stating that if the BJP didn’t give him the ticket in the 2023 elections, he would retire from politics and serve the Hindu community.
However, with the first list to be announced today or tomorrow, BJP cadres is hopeful that he will be considered for the Goshamahal seat, which has been his stronghold, irrespective of his party affiliation.
