Telangana MLA T Raja Singh on Monday resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party, expressing “shock and disappointment” at media reports saying that former Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao was set to be the next state party chief.

Singh, the MLA from the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, said in a letter to current Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy that the decision disappointed “lakhs of karyakartas, leaders and voters who have stood by the party through every high and low”.

He said that some individuals, driven by personal interest, appeared to have misled the BJP’s central leadership, and claimed that this risked causing avoidable setbacks to the party.

“This is not about personal ambition, this letter reflects the pain and frustration of lakhs of loyal BJP karyakartas and supporters who feel sidelines and unheard,” Singh said.

The Goshamahal MLA, however, said he remained committed to the ideology of Hindutva, and that he would “continue to raise my voice and stand with the Hindu community with even greater strength”.

Singh has frequently made inflammatory remarks targeting Muslims and has been booked in several criminal cases.

In August 2022, he was briefly arrested for allegedly making disparaging remarks about Prophet Muhammad. However, the court had ordered his release, saying that the police did not follow proper procedure during his arrest.

The BJP suspended Singh for the remarks in August 2022, but reinstated him in October 2023. On December 3, 2023, he went on to win his third term as an MLA from Goshamahal.

Even when he was suspended from the party, Singh had engaged in hate speech against Muslims multiple times.

In January 2023, the MLA urged Hindu women not to befriend women who wear the burqa.

The MLA insinuated that Hindus now face danger from Muslim men as well as women as he said: “There was a time when we faced danger from Aftab, but now there is danger from Ayesha as well. It is this Ayesha that introduces [Hindu women] to Aftab.”

In March, Singh was once again booked making inflammatory remarks against Muslims during an event in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. At the event, held on March 10, Singh had made derogatory references towards Muslims and also claimed that India will be declared a Hindu nation by 2026.

At another rally in March organised to support the renaming of the city of Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Singh had asked Hindus to take action if they find cases of “love jihad”. The city was officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar in September.

The BJP leader had also used abusive language for Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi, and compared the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leaders to dogs.