'Kept out' of state chief race, Raja quits BJP

Hyderabad: In a dramatic escalation of internal dissent within Telangana BJP , MLA T Raja Singh resigned Monday against N Ramchander Rao 's appointment as state unit chief , and alleged he was "threatened by the party" not to file his nomination for the post.

Singh, considered the party's Hindutva posterboy in the Congress-goverened state, submitted a strongly worded two-page resignation to outgoing state unit chief and Union coal minister G Kishan Reddy. "This decision (Rao's appointment) has come as a shock and disappointment, not just to me, but to lakhs of workers, leaders, and voters who have stood by BJP through high and low," Singh wrote, adding. "I may have resigned from the party, but not from the ideology."