Adilabad: Amid speculation that the TRS might go for early Assembly elections in 2023, it is expected that the results of the trade union elections in Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) will provide an indicator of public mood.
As many as 25 Assembly constituencies fall in the region that comprises Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam. At present, 50,000 workers of various state cadres are working in the SCCL. SCCL’s CMD K. Sridhar recently expressed readiness to conduct elections.
The SCCL has been in the news recently over reported that the Central government was planning to privatise four coal blocks. This has provided TBGKS, which is allied with the TRS, and other trade unions ammunition to target the BJP government, even as the saffron party refuted the allegations and condemned the false news.
TRS party sources said that a win for its allied trade unions in the SCCL elections will set the mood for the Assembly elections and subsequently, the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. TBGKS has been twice elected as a recognised trade union in the SCCL elections, garnering support in the region.
The BJP’s ally, Singareni Coal Mines Karmika Sangh (BMS), is finding it tough in going up against TBGKS due to resistance from leftist unions of AITUC, INTUC, CITU and IFTU. The last elections were held in SCCL on October 5, 2017.
Amid complaints that TBGKS’ term ended in April 2022, all trade unions are now preparing for the elections and the TRS is looking to garner the support of the electorate starting here.
