Lucknow: Mounting power cuts across Uttar Pradesh have triggered strong political reactions, with legislators from both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties writing letters and posting on social media to state energy minister Arvind Kumar Sharma over the worsening electricity crisis during peak summer.
BJP MLAs demand emergency measures
BJP MLA from Gonda Sadar, Prateek Bhushan Singh, in his letter described a “serious electricity crisis” in his district and constituency. Calling the issue “extremely sensitive and urgent,” Singh said repeated outages amid intense heat had pushed residents into severe distress and disrupted normal life, workplaces and business activity. He urged the minister to ensure an emergency mechanism for uninterrupted power supply, particularly during night hours, and sought immediate intervention for a permanent solution.
Biswa BJP MLA, Nirmal Verma also wrote to the energy minister, stating that both urban and rural areas of his constituency in Sitapur district have been facing continuous scheduled power cuts for several days. He said that the outages had severely affected trade, agriculture and daily life and urged officials to restore normal supply at the earliest.
Opposition leaders attack government
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP government over the crisis. In a public appeal, he urged people not to vent anger on linemen and junior electricity employees, claiming they were already working under pressure after large-scale contractual staff layoffs. He blamed the government for failing to strengthen generation, transmission and distribution systems despite rising demand.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati also criticized the power situation in UP amid the ongoing heatwave, saying complaints of inadequate electricity supply and frequent outages were making life “extremely distressing” for people across the state. “Even in a state like UP with its vast population, during this season of severe heat, the common complaints regarding inadequate electricity supply and frequent outages have made life extremely distressing for the poor, middle class, farmers, small traders and millions of other hardworking people,” Mayawati said. She appealed to the government to take immediate corrective measures keeping in mind the hardships faced by the public due to electricity-related problems.
Other leaders raise concerns
Nagina MP Chandra Shekhar Azad also wrote to Sharma, highlighting worsening outages in rural and semi-urban areas. He said students, farmers, labourers and small traders were among the worst affected. In Lucknow, MLAs Neeraj Vora (Lucknow North) and Rajeshwar Singh (Sarojini Nagar) submitted complaints about outages affecting the state capital and adjoining districts, urging the state energy minister to enforce corrective measures.
