The Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s resounding victory in the by-elections to Huzurnagar assembly seat with a massive majority has cast a shadow on the ongoing agitation by the employees and workers of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), which entered 19th day on Thursday.
The RTC workers are now worried that KCR, who is fresh from the victory in the Huzurnagar by-elections, would further toughen his stand on the strike.
The victory has given him has a solid ground to claim that the RTC strike has no support from the people.
The opposition parties – particularly the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which tried to capitalise on the RTC employees’ strike and made it a big issue in the elections, have faced a humiliating defeat.
KCR will now claim that these parties, which had been instigating the RTC workers to agitate in a bid to gain political mileage in the Huzurnagar assembly by-elections, have no moral right to talk about the RTC.
Now that he has got the people’s mandate in a big way once again, there is every possibility that the chief minister might go in for massive overhaul of the RTC by going in for privatisation, removing all the striking employees and leasing out the RTC assets. There will be no stopping for him hereafter.
For the RTC workers, too, it will be a moral setback and they cannot claim to have the people’s support now.
There could be a split in the employees and majority of them might even get into a compromise with the government and get back to their jobs, if KCR gives them.
Ultimately, the situation will come back to square one!