Singh had served as the
party whip for the
Bharatiya Janata Party in the state of Telangana.[4] He was suspended from the party on 23 August 2022 for his remarks on Muhammad, during the
2022 Muhammad remarks controversy, but his suspension was revoked on 22 October 2023, so that he could participate in the
assembly elections.[5][6] He is one of the most controversial politicians in India, with more than 105 criminal cases registered against him, of which 18 were related to communal offences.[7][8][9][10]
Personal life
T. Raja Singh was born to T. Naval Singh and hails from
Goshamahal,
Hyderabad.[11] He is married to T. Usha. He has 3 sons and 1 daughter.[2]
Career
In his early thirties, Singh was close to
Mula Mukesh Goud, the Goshamahal MLA from the
Congress party, and Mettu Vaikuntam, the BJP corporator from Goshamahal. These connections helped him gain a following in Goshamahal. With Goud’s help, Singh was also involved in the
Congress Party’s youth wing for some time.[9][12]
He joined the BJP ahead of the
2014 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, on the insistence of Mettu Vaikuntam, and won the election for the Goshamahal Assembly constituency with a margin of 46,793 against Mukesh Goud.[12][14]
In 2018, he was re-elected to the Telangana Legislative Assembly from the same constituency with a margin of 17,734 against the
Bharat Rashtra Samithi candidate
Prem Singh Rathore.[15]
Since his joining the BJP in 2014, he has left the party thrice on the grounds that the BJP has not been doing enough for the Hindus and more so for cow protection.[12] Intelligence officials have claimed that he is one of the main men in the "Sriram Yuva Sena", a
pro-hindutva organisation from the days of
United Andhra Pradesh, consisting mainly of gau-rakshaks. The group emerged for a while after his suspension from the BJP for his controversial remarks against
Muhammad.[14]
Controversies
In April 2010, he was arrested on charge of fanning communal clashes in Hyderabad.[16]
In 2012, when he was the
Mangalhat representative for
GHMC, the Central Crime Station of the
Hyderabad Police nabbed him for theft and multiple other sections of the
Indian Penal Code. They claimed he had knowingly purchased a stolen
Toyota Qualis, a four-wheeler that belonged to the
Government of Kerala, and that he had been using it for the past two years. He allegedly paid a sum of Rs 3 lakh for it, and had it re-registered with fake documents in Visakhapatnam, against a registration number that belonged to a TVS Champ two-wheeler. His close associates alleged that the arrest was influenced by other political parties[16][17]
In 2017, Singh was embroiled in various alleged
hate speech controversies, including his remarks in May 2017 where he called the
Old City area in Hyderabad "mini Pakistan."[18] In July 2017, he appealed to the
West Bengali Hindu community to respond in a manner similar to the
2002 Gujarat riots.[19] He has also repeatedly called for the establishment of a
Hindu Rashtra by armed means.[20][21][22]
In June 2018, Singh called for a
Quran ban.[23] He is known for his vocal anti-Muslim views, which includes calling them traitors and backing the shooting of
Rohingya people.[24][25] In a video message, he said that 'illegal' Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis should be shot dead if they didn't leave the country respectfully, and labelled them as pests.[26] In 2023, during
Shiv Jayanti, in
Shrirampur,
Ahmad Nagar district, he made remarks against Muslims which led to a riot.[27] On 2 September 2020,
Facebook labelled Singh as a "dangerous individual" and banned him from all Facebook platforms.[28]
Amid the
2022 Muhammad remarks controversy, Singh was arrested by the
Hyderabad Police on 23 August 2022, hours after his comments about
Muhammad sparked protests in the city.[29] He was subsequently suspended from BJP for violating party norms.[30] He was released on bail the same evening but later arrested again on 25 August 2022.[31][32] In October 2023, the BJP revoked his suspension ahead of the assembly elections in Telangana.[5][33]
In October 2023, following the revocation of his suspension, he was fielded as the BJP candidate in the
2023 Telangana Legislative Assembly elections, and won the seat for the third time in a row.[34]
On 18 April 2024, he was booked by
Afzal Gunj police for carrying out an unauthorised rally during a
Ram Navami procession a day earlier. He allegedly sang
Islamophobic songs.[35][36]