MM Farooqui Hyderabad

TheTGSRTC Employees Union secured victory in the union recognition elections of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation after obtaining the highest number of votes.

Winning 18,276 votes, the union emerged victorious and received a formal declaration from the Returning Officer, who serves as Joint Commissioner of the Labour Department. The Employees Union will hold recognized representative status across the corporation for a two-year tenure.

The elections were conducted on October 9 through secret ballot, followed by postal ballot voting on October 14 and 15 across all depot facilities in Telangana. Demonstrating high voter participation, 34,421 employees exercised their franchise out of 34,904 total eligible voters across the state network.

Contesting under the bus symbol, the Employees Union won comfortably with 18,276 votes, while the runner-up Telangana RTC Workers Union received 13,113 votes and the Telangana National Mazdoor Union secured 1,315 votes.

Following official result declarations, the Returning Officer confirmed that the Employees Union satisfied all necessary criteria to become the sole recognized representative union for RTC employees.

Previous recognition elections were held on July 19, 2016, when the Telangana Mazdoor Union won, before unions were subsequently derecognized under the previous administration. The current elections were conducted following the Congress government's decision to restore trade union rights as part of its electoral commitments.

Meanwhile, leaders representing an alliance of the TWU, SWF, and SWU met Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, urging the state government to initiate formal procedures to merge TGSRTC with the government administration.

They highlighted pressing challenges faced by retired RTC employees, requesting prompt settlement of long-pending financial dues and unresolved administrative grievances.

Responding to the alliance delegation, Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar assured union representatives that the government would work towards resolving retired employee grievances and initiate appropriate measures to clear outstanding dues owed to former transport workers.