Lok Sabha elections in Telangana: Singareni coal workers hold key in 5 seats

HYDERABAD: Nearly two lakh voters, who are part of about 50,000 Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) workers, retired employees and their family members, will play a key role in five Lok Sabha constituencies in the April 11 election. Keeping an eye on these votes, all political parties are working out strategies to woo these electorates. The parties are promising SCCL workers of taking up their issues like dependent employment and opening new mines which will generate employment opportunities for the youth residing in these areas.


The coal belt covers Adilabad, Peddapalli, Warangal, Khammam and Mahbubabad constituencies and eleven assembly constituencies. However, the equation between the Singareni workers and political parties has been a mixed bag. While the TRS-affiliated trade union Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangam (TBGKS) won the elections held in 2017 and is the officially recognised union of SCCL, in the recently held assembly elections, it was the Congress candidates who won majority of the assembly seats in the coal belt. Now, both TRS and Congress believe that these workers will vote for the respective parties in the Lok Sabha polls. Unions say that not only Singareni workers and their families, but retired employees and contract workers will also determine the victory of the candidates.

Congress MLAs won in assembly constituencies like Manthani, Bhoopalpally, Kothagudem, Yellandu, Pinapaka, Sathupally (TDP with Congress alliance), while TRS MLAs bagged seats in Mancherial, Peddapalli and Chennur segments. Ramagundam seat was bagged by TRS rebel MLA, who again joined the ruling party post-election results. Congress MLAs from coal belt from Kothagudem, Yellandu, Pinapaka, Sathupally (TDP) had extended their support to TRS before MLC polls. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, all the five constituencies were bagged by the TRS. In the hope of retaining all of them, TRS candidates have roped in TBGKS leaders for campaigning.

Interestingly, TRS MP from Nizamabad K Kavitha was the honorary president of TBGKS, but she quit the post after the assembly elections. “TRS on behalf of TGBKS promised dependent employment to the workers, which has not been fulfilled for the past two years. Apart from not creating any new employment opportunities, the SCCL management has closed four underground mines in two years,” All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Vasireddy Sitaramaiah told TOI.

BJP, which is also trying to garner support of Singareni workers, said the Centre has ensured the opening of Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) in Ramagundam area and BJP has taken many initiatives for NTPC workers.
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