Remember Ashwatthama Reddy? In case you forgot, Reddy was the general secretary of the Telangana Mazdoor Union, which organised and spearheaded a 46-day strike in the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation. It was under his leadership that the RTC employees went for a strike.

He is back in the news now. A big section of the TSRTC employees want him to resign from the union. As it is the union has become quite weak. It has lost its ground after the failed strike. The strike managed to gain nothing for the employees and the KCR government had completely tamed the union. Whatever little credibility it had was washed away when KCR ignored the unions and talked directly with the employees.

But now the president of the union – Thomas Reddy – and general secretary Ashwatthama Reddy are busy fighting among themselves over the control of the union. Thomas Reddy wants complete control and wants to see Ashwatthama Reddy out of the union. On Monday, he even formed a rival union and expelled Ashwatthama Reddy.

On his part, Ashwatthama Reddy argued that the rival union was not a recognised union and that he is still the general secretary of the union. He said he was the general secretary as the people want him to be the general secretary. Soon, the union could split and get further weakened.