Amid an intense heatwave, mounting power cuts across Uttar Pradesh have snowballed into a major political flashpoint, with opposition leaders criticising the Yogi Adityanath government over prolonged outages disrupting daily life across the state. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati, and even some BJP MLAs raised concerns over worsening electricity shortages affecting households, businesses, farmers, and students during peak summer conditions.
Several leaders also wrote to Uttar Pradesh energy minister Arvind Kumar Sharma, urging immediate intervention to address the crisis.
Akhilesh Yadav launched an attack on the BJP government, blaming it for failing to strengthen power generation, transmission and distribution systems despite rising demand over the years.
In a public appeal, the former chief minister also urged people not to target linemen and junior electricity staff, saying they were already working under immense pressure following large-scale layoffs of contractual employees in the power sector.
Mayawati too criticised the worsening electricity situation in Uttar Pradesh, saying inadequate supply and frequent outages had made life “extremely distressing” for people across the state during the scorching summer.
“Even in a state like Uttar Pradesh 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 hardworking people,” the BSP chief said, TOI reported.
She appealed to the government to take immediate corrective measures keeping in mind the hardships being faced by the public due to electricity-related problems.
Some Congress workers also staged a protest over the power cuts in Kanpur.
BJP MLAs also raise concerns
In a letter to the minister, BJP MLA from Gonda Sadar Prateek Bhushan Singh described the situation in his constituency as a “serious electricity crisis” and termed the issue “extremely sensitive and urgent”. He said repeated outages during the severe heatwave had pushed residents into distress while severely affecting normal life, workplaces and business activity, TOI reported.
The BJP MLA pointed to multiple technical challenges behind the worsening situation, including overloaded transformers, snapped wires following storms and infrastructure stress caused by soaring electricity demand.
He urged the government to put in place an emergency mechanism to ensure uninterrupted supply, especially during night hours, and sought a long-term permanent solution.
Uttar Pradesh is reeling under a severe heatwave, with temperatures crossing 45°C across several districts. Lucknow, Meerut, Gonda, and several rural districts are facing daily power cuts lasting up to six hours.
Power Minister A K Sharma said the state power corporation was making “every possible effort” to maintain supply and meet record-breaking demand.