Transport staff union elections to be held today

The Transport Corporation Employees Co-Op credit society is likely to go for election on Monday, after it was cancelled three times in a row this year.

Sources said that the election was cancelled four times in this year after the AIADMK transport union members filed four writ petitions and got stay from the Court.

In the beginning of the year, the commission announced the date of election as March 30, but it was cancelled a week before the date. Later, it was re-scheduled on 7 May which was again cancelled on 4 May. Subsequently, the election which was to be conducted on 15 August was cancelled on the same day.

However, the High Court quashed all the writ petitions and directed the commission to hold fresh elections in a free and fair manner last week.

Following it, the district election commissioner of the Tamil Nadu State Co-op Societies Election Commission announced the date of election on November 20.

After the verdict, two writ petitions were filed with the High Court requesting to cancel the coming election. But, it was dismissed last Friday.

The president of the State Transport Employees Union, P Balakrishnan, said, “Soon after the verdict, the ruling party members indulged in intimidation of the other union members. We are hoping that election will be conducted in a smooth way. So far, we had spent around Rs 25 lakhs on various materials including the publicity for the last four cancelled elections. For this election, we had spent additionally Rs 5 lakh. We will be incurring a huge loss if the election is cancelled this time, also.”