Raja Singh, who made anti-Prophet remarks, gets BJP ticket in Telangana

Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Etala Rajender is set to take on Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Gajwel constituency in November 30 assembly polls, according to the first list of candidates released by the BJP on Sunday.

Three of the BJP's sitting Lok Sabha members - Bandi Sanjay Kumar (former Telangana BJP chief and Karimnagar MP), Dharmapuri Arvind (Nizamabad MP) and Soyam Bapu Rao (Adilabad MP) will contest in the elections.

The BJP has also given ticket to its firebrand Hindutva leader and sitting MLA T Raja Singh from his Goshamahal seat after revoking his suspension, effected last year for alleged insulting remarks towards Prophet Mohammad.

"I express my heartfelt gratitude to the BJP Leadership for nominating me as the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate in the #Goshamahal Constituency for the upcoming 2023 legislative assembly election," Singh said in a message posted on "X".

Besides Gajwel, Etala Rajender will also contest from Huzurabad, which he is representing now.

Rajender had earlier indicated that if the party's senior leadership permits, he will take on KCR in Gajwel, which is currently represented by the BRS supremo.

Sanjay Kumar is fielded from Karimnagar while two other MPs, Soyam Bapu Rao and Dharmapuri Arvind, are from Boath and Koratla respectively.

Rani Rudrama Reddy was fielded against BRS working president and KCR's son KT Rama Rao in Sircilla.

According to the BJP list, K Venkata Ramana Reddy will slug it out with the CM in Kamareddy constituency.

KCR will contest from two segments in the upcoming polls - Gajwel and Kamareddy assembly constituencies.

In the list of 52, BJP gave tickets to 12 women contestants.

On the party's strategy of fielding three MPs for assembly polls, senior BJP leader N Ramchander Rao said the party looked into the potentiality of the candidates.

"Basically, the BJP's idea is to have potential candidates so that the chances of winning are more and also more representation in the assembly," the BJP leader told PTI.

He further said the party would not like to take chances by fielding new faces.