It is definitely not going to be a cakewalk for any political party, more so for the ruling BRS in the 11 Assembly seats of the coal belt in the State’s northern region.
Nearly 42,000 employees of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) are spread out, albeit in different proportions, in Asifabad, Mancherial, Bellampally, Chennur, Bhupalpally, Manthani, Ramagundam, Kothagudem, Yellandu, Pinapaka, and Sathupalli. They are present in a couple of other constituencies but votes of workers in these 11 Assembly segments would have a significant influence on the poll outcome.
When added up, votes of their family members, those of retired workers and workers of other allied industries in these constituencies accumulate to big numbers and play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the contestants.
Unlike other parts of Telangana, here the fight is mainly between the BRS and Congress. And going by the percentage of votes secured, and even strengths gathered in the past five years by the BJP, it is not an exaggeration to say that none of their nominees are throwing a formidable challenge to both the parties here.
Barring Manthani, won by Congress nominee Sridhar Babu in previous elections, all the 10 incumbent MLAs are from BRS.
Interestingly, five of them won the 2018 Assembly election on Congress tickets and eventually switched their loyalty to BRS. Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and Korukanti Chander won Sathupalli and Ramagundam seats on All India Forward Bloc and TDP tickets. They too joined BRS later. BRS candidates won Mancherial, Bellampally and Chennur seats consecutively in 2014 and 2018. BRS nominees in these three and the remaining eight are strong by virtue of they being members of the ruling party and having undertaken several developmental works.
Congress fielded its nominees from 10 seats while left Kothagudem to its ally CPI (M), whose State general secretary Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao is fighting from there. “There is no serious antagonism against BRS government as Singareni workers got their bonuses and other perks,” said S. Sanjeeva Rao, former MLA and trade union leader. But the picture is not that rosy as some workers echoed a clear dissent.
“Bonus is not a special from BRS government. Bonuses were given during earlier governments also. But, there are no fresh recruitments in Singareni, and other government departments that is our serious concern,” observed a worker Hari Babu (name changed). For some people, for example in Mandamari town of Chennur seat, failure of the government to issue pattas for small plots in which they built their houses years ago is being viewed seriously by some voters.
A private employee, Srikanth, pasted a wall poster on his house stating “Our house has six votes…we will vote to only those who get us house pattas”. “Voter changed…you also change.. otherwise that is it,” the poster said. “Sir, we are not biased against any party. What is the government doing for the last 10 years,” Srikanth questioned, maintaining that more such posters would emerge if anyone tried to remove it.
The promise of providing a job to the family member of a worker declared medically unfit, though aimed at helping workers, has considerably dented the government image, points out Mr. Sanjeeva Rao.
A section of people believe that brokers collected money ranging from ₹5 lakh-10 lakh from each worker assuring to help them secure a ‘medically unfit’ order. “In some cases, it happened. In many cases it failed. Workers think people connected to powerful politicians duped them in this matter,” Mr. Rao felt.
The Left parties and trade unions connected to them had a strong base among the workers once. But that eroded in the past few years with Telangana Boggu Gani Karimika Sangham affiliated to BRS becoming stronger.
“The anti-incumbency factor is on the rise here. With leaders and activists of the once-strong Left parties, allying with the main Opposition, the fight is equally poised between Congress and BRS,” noted an employee.
