Will T Raja Singh Hold On To BJP Fortress In Hyderabad? (twitter.com/TigerRajaSingh)

Thakur Raja Singh is the sitting MLA of the Goshamahal Assembly constituency. One of 15 constituencies in Hyderabad region, Goshamahal comprises a substantial Hindu migrant population, drawn from north India, and among them Lodhi community, an OBC community, to which Raja Singh belongs constitutes dominance. In the 2023 Assembly election, he is pitted against BRS”s Nanda Kishore Vyas and Congress candidate Mogili Sunitha.

Raja Singh, a member of the Bajrang Dal, began his political career in Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and elected as the municipal councillor from Mangalhat in 2009. However, he shifted his allegiance to BJP ahead of the 2014 general elections and won the Goshamahal Assembly seat against Congress. In 2018 Assembly elections, he again emerged victorious by winning 61,854 votes against TRS”s (now BRS) Prem Singh Rathore who came second with 44,120. As per the reports, Raja Singh was the only sitting BJP legislator among the five who got re-elected amidst the upheaval of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in 2018 Assembly elections.

In last year August, he was suspended by the party over his alleged controversial remarks against “Islam and Prophet Mohammed” in a 10-minute video. As per Hyderabad Police reports on October 2022 more than 100 criminal cases had been filed against Raja Singh and among them 18 falls under communal offences. In October this year the party revoked his suspension and fielded him as a candidate for the assembly election.

He is infamous for his hate speeches particularly targeting Muslim community. In September 2020, Facebook banned Raja Singh for breaching the company’s policy concerning promoting or engaging violence and hate. Besides, the two-time MLA is known in Hyderabad and surrounding regions as the ‘gau rakshak’, and Raja Singh states that he along with his followers had saved thousands of cows in the capital city.

Interestingly, Goshamahal is the only assembly segment in the Hyderabad region which was never held by AIMIM.