With Raja Singh in jail, 3 eye Goshamahal seat

Hyderabad: Even as the suspended BJP MLA T Raja Singh is in jail, politics turned hot in the Goshamahal constituency as aspirants see this as an opportunity to enter the Assembly.

Singh has been the local MLA in 2014 and 2018 and went on to become the floor leader. However, post the controversial comedian Munawar Farooqi's show and subsequent incident of video released by him, leading to unrest among the minority sections, the aspirants have entered the scene in the segment, which was a safe seat for the saffron party.

There are many aspirants in the BJP eying the constituency, including the three times and present corporator Shankar Yadav, M Vikram Goud, son of former Minister Mukesh Goud, Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi general secretary Bhagwanth Rao.

In an interesting development recently Vikram Goud organised a meeting with his followers at his office near MJ Market.

It was attended by BJP national vice-president DK Aruna. The occasion was 'Mann ki Baat' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to party leaders, this was the first time in the last eight years Vikram Goud had organised a meeting. The young leader, who is expecting the ticket from Goshamahal, took the opportunity to hold the meeting as it was also the occasion of the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. This would give a message to the leadership that the meeting was to pay tributes to the party ideologue and listen to Mann ki Baat; none would object.

The presence of Golkonda district president Pandu Yadav in the meeting became a topic of discussion. As expected, Singh's followers did not attend.

Bhagwanth Rao is expecting the ticket. He had contested the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat. Goshamahal falls under this segment. Rao got majority votes from the segment, which makes him focus on the seat in the next election.

Meanwhile, Singh appeared before the PD Act Review Committee on Thursday from Cherlapally Central Prison through video conference. He argued against invoking the PD Act against him. His wife also filed a counter before the committee challenging the Act. The three-member committee received the counter from Singh's wife. It reserved orders in the case.