Hyderabad: With the Bharatiya Janata Party revoking the suspension of Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh and officially declaring him a party candidate from Goshamahal constituency, all eyes are on the BRS leadership, who have not yet finalised their candidate from Goshamahal.
Raja Singh won the elections in 2014 and 2018 on BJP ticket from Goshamahal. In fact, in 2014 he was the only BJP candidate to win the elections and enter the legislative assembly. In 2018, the number of BJP MLAs rose to three.
Goshamahal is a crucial seat for the BRS as it is located within the city. The pink party wants to win the seat to consolidate its position in the city. The AIMIM, which is a BRS ally, didn’t field any candidate from Goshamahal to support the BRS in its attempt to defeat the BJP candidate.
Four leaders — Nanda Kishore Vyas Bilal alias Nandu Bilal, ex-MLA Prem Singh Rathod, Gaddiam Srinivas Yadav and Ashish Kumar Yadav — are vying for BRS ticket from Goshamahal.
Among the four contenders, sources said Nanda Kishore Vyas has a higher chance due to his long association with the BRS. He contested as an independent candidate in 2014. He is presently the in-charge of Goshamahal assembly constituency.
Senior leader Prem Singh Rathod in 2018 contested as BRS candidate and got 44,120 votes while as T Raja Singh secured 61,806 votes.
Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced candidates for 115 seats in the first list and three names were cleared later. However, the candidate for Goshamahal was not announced and the decision was kept on hold as the fate of Raja Singh was unclear.
Now that the BJP has lifted Raja Singh’s suspension, the CM is likely to announce BRS candidate from Goshamahal soon.
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