In a major blow to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday withdrew its support to the party for the October 21 bye-election to the Huzurnagar Assembly seat.
Peeved at the manner in which the TRS government was handling the ongoing strike by Road Transport Corporation (RTC) employees, the CPI withdrew its earlier decision to extend support to the ruling party.
CPI state Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy announced the party's decision after a meeting at Makhdoom Bhavan in Hyderabad, the party's headquarters.
Stating that strike is a legal right of employees, he said the government tried to snatch this right by terming the strike illegal and refusing to hold talks with the employees. Reddy said by announcing dismissal of 48,000 employees, the TRS government provoked them.
The CPI leader alleged that the government not only adopted anti-employee attitude but by calling applications from unemployed for fresh recruitment in the RTC created a conflict.
Venkat Reddy said due to the government's anti-employee attitude, two employees committed suicide. He said as the government failed to mend its ways, the CPI was compelled to review its stand and withdraw the support.
The CPI, which had an alliance with Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) in 2018 Assembly elections, is not contesting the bye-poll. Following a request by the TRS leadership, the CPI on October 1 had decided to extend support to the ruling party.
The bye poll in Huzurnagar is necessitated by the resignation of state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy from Assembly following his election to Lok Sabha from Nalgonda constituency in the recent polls.
Uttam Kumar Reddy's wife Padmavathi Reddy is the Congress candidate. She is locked in a direct fight against TRS candidate Saidi Reddy.