Trade Union polls in Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) will be held on Wednesday, December 27. The elections will begin at 7am and conclude at 5pm. The counting of the votes would begin at 6 pm, the notification said. The election will be held using ballot boxes. A total of 13 trade unions will participate in the elections.
The nomination process for the Singareni polls was completed in October and the ballot papers were also printed. However, the election was postponed in view of the Assembly election. Though the Congress party wanted the trade union elections to be deferred until the Lok Sabha polls next year, the Telangana High Court refused to entertain the plea.
The Singareni trade union elections were last held in 2017. The TBGKS headed by former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kavitha won the polls by bagging nine out of 11 coal mine divisions.
The INTUC, TBGKS and the CPI affiliated All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) are the major contenders. Hindustan Mazdoor Sangh (HMS), affiliated to the BJP, is also in the fray but it is considered to have limited support among the workers.
The SCCL coal mines are spread over 11 Assembly constituencies in erstwhile Adilabad, Khammam, Warangal and Karimnagar districts.
In the recent Assembly elections, the Congress had won nine seats while its ally CPI had bagged Kothagudem. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which lost power to the Congress, secured only one seat (Asifabad).
According to reports, the BRS refused to support its affiliated trade union TBGKS fearing a setback ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. However, the party has denied the reports. But the TBGKS has suffered a blow after some of their top leaders, including president Venkat Rao, recently quit the union.
With its recent victory in the state Assembly elections, the Congress is confident that its affiliated workers organisation Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) will sweep the elections. The ruling party is focusing on the polls as a win would boost the prospects of the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in about five seats.
On Monday, December 24, Ministers D Sridhar Babu and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy on Monday campaigned for INTUC candidates in the mining areas in Peddapalli and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts.
They promised that INTUC will work to safeguard the interests of Singareni workers and also assured the miners that the government will fulfil their dream of owning a house.
With IANS inputs