The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), appointed its key party leaders as 'political in-charges' for its 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana on Monday. The controversial MLA T Raja Singh, whose suspension was revoked last year, has now been appointed in charge of Hyderabad, where All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi is the MP, as per news agency PTI.
As per a BJP release, the appointments were made by Union Tourism Minister and BJP President G. Kishan Reddy, reported PTI.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP K Laxman is now incharge of the Reddy-represented Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency. Kishan Reddy also appointed Ex MP Garikapati Mohan Rao as in-charge of Mahabubabad, MLA Ramarao Pawar for Peddapalli, former minister Marri Sashidhar Reddy for Warangal, and MLA Dhanpal Suryanaryana Gupta for Karimnagar, among many others, as per a press release by the BJP State General Secretary.
According to PTI's report, Raja Singh was suspended from the BJP in 2022 due to his derogatory statements about Prophet Mohammed. His suspension was, however, revoked, and he has now been designated the responsibility of managing poll-related tasks for the party in the Hyderabad constituency. This politically sensitive constituency is represented by the old Hyderabad AIMIM party in the Parliament.
The BJP also appointed these eight newly-elected BJP MLAs in Telangana as in-charges for different constituencies. The party also said that the newly elected political in-charges will also oversee the campaigning and coordination for the Lok Sabha polls, as per PTI.
Earlier in 2019, the BJP had won only 4 out of 17 seats in Telangana. During his visit to Telangana on December 28 last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, announced BJP's target of winning at least 10 seats to secure a 35 percent vote share in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, according to PTI.
BJP had won just 8 out of 119 seats in the recently held legislative assembly polls in Telangana.