'Power' crisis kicks up in poll year; BJP-Opposition play blame game

The ongoing power crisis in the country in wake of the coal shortage has kicked up a political brawl with the Opposition questioning the 'Achche Din' promise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and launching agitations in states. Not to be cowed down, the BJP has hit back putting the blame on Chief Ministers in the Opposition-ruled states and slamming the non-NDA parties for politicising the issue of power supply.

A number of states witnessing severe power cuts has snowballed into a major political crisis as it comes in an election year when two BJP-ruled states Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat - the home state Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah - go to polls at the end of the year. Government data showed the peak power shortage that was 2.64GW on Sunday, shot up to 5.24 GW on Monday, 8.22 GW on Tuesday, 10.29 GW on Wednesday and further to 10.77 GW on Thursday. This is happening at a time when heatwaves have intensified across the country.

Also Read | Peak shortage shoots up to 10.77 GW this week, deepens power crisis

While in JMM-Congress ruled Jharkhand, BJP's former Chief Minister Raghuvar Das levelled the charge of inefficiency of Chief Minister Hemant Soren and attacked him for not planning in advance to avoid power cuts during the summer, in AAP-ruled Punjab Shiromani Akali Dal hit out at AAP, which had promised free power in the state saying Delhi model has "electrocuted" as people were facing 18-hour power cuts at the onset of the summer season."

BJP organised a protest against the acute power shortage in Jharkhand and took out an "Aakrosh March" at which Das said, "the outrage over the acute power crisis in Jharkhand, one of the largest coal-producing states in the country, is due to the inefficient Hemant Soren government and its lack of pre-planning to tackle such situation."

Congress communication department chief Randeep Surjewala hit out at BJP government of Haryana alleging that the "BJP-JJP government in the state is supplying (perhaps free of cost) electricity to a private company in Gujarat when "Haryana has no water for drinking and irrigation and people are spending time under trees (to evade heat)."

Also Read | 'Modi hai, mumkin hai': Chidambaram jeers Centre over power outages

Putting the blame on the Centre for the ongoing crisis, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chose to highlight "this problem is faced by the whole country due to coal shortage."

Union Power Minister RK Singh after reviewing thermal power plants assured in a statement the distribution companies of Delhi will get as much power as requisitioned by them as per their demand after the Kejriwal government repeatedly flagged an "acute shortage" of coal.

Bhupesh Baghel, Chief Minister of Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh hit out at the central government asking if there was no shortage why passenger trains are being cancelled. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate has alleged that 16 states, including 12 BJP-ruled ones, are facing long power cuts of up to 10 hours. The government, instead of planning for the peak power demand, is blaming the states for its own failures, she said.

Another Congress Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan claimed that due to "efficient management" by his government, there would be no shortage of water and electricity.

In a series of tweets, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram portraying the power crisis scenario also sarcastically commented "Modi government cannot be blamed. This is due to the Congress' rule of 60 years."

In another sarcasm, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said, "this is Modi ji’s masterstroke to increase the sales of inverters and generators!"

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