Did KCR Take A Risky Political Decision?

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao did show little mercy on RTC Employees who are the major contributors in Sakala Janula Samme which prompted the Telangana Statehood and TRS coming to Power. He laid off around 48000 employees who are involved in the Strike and ordered new recruitment in their place.

In 2003, the then Tamil Nadu chief minister dismissed 1.76 lakh government employees who had gone on strike. That decision forced the employees to call off the strike and also they were taken back only after tendering an unconditional apology as well as giving an undertaking that they will not thereafter go on strike.

The government did not take back 2200 employees who were indulged in violence. But then, the iron fist attitude backfired on Jayalalithaa. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election that followed, the AIADMK did not win a single seat and the DMK-led alliance swept Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa also lost power in the 2006 assembly elections.

Back then, Political analysts said the strike and the lay-offs played a major role in AIADMK’s drubbing. KCR would be hoping that the same does not happen to his Government as well. He may have bitten the Bullet since the elections are far away. Also, the public sentiment this time is not entirely with the striking employees, KCR opines since the Strike troubled the people in Dussehra season.