In a setback to the ruling TRS party, its party affiliate Greater Hyderabad Municipal Employees Union (GHMEU) got trounced in the GHMC employees’ union election by the BJP affiliate Bhagyanagar Municipal Employees Union (BMEU).

A total of 4,264 votes were polled in the election where the BMEU got 2,482. The BEMU trounced the GHMEU with a margin of 1,317 votes, despite a blitzkrieg campaign by several ministers like Deputy CM Mahmood Ali, Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy and several other MLAs.

This is the first setback to the party since 2014, as it had won the GHMC elections with a thumping majority ever since, winning several other union elections including the recent Singareni Collieries trade union elections.

In the Singareni trade union elections, the TRS affiliate Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) ensured a massive victory, by winning 9 divisions of the 12.  

According to Deccan Chronicle, the TRS’ failure to win the GHMC employees’ union elections was due to poll promises which were not kept.

Crying foul over the results, GHMEU president U Gopal said that the key party leaders had sabotaged them and gave support to the BMEU.  “Some leaders, particularly in the central committee in Abids and Khairtabad offices backstabbed us. Some top leaders, who assured support also worked in favour of BMEU,” Times of India quoted him as saying.

It may be recalled that the GHMC employees’ union elections were supposed to be held in 2014. However, the state government kept postponing the elections, as a result, the BMEU had sought the High Court’s intervention.

Meanwhile, the BMEU president K Shankar and winning leader said that the workers and the employees had taught a befitting lesson to the TRS. He said that the TRS government kept postponing elections for past four years fearing loss.