Electricity loses spark as poll issue
LUCKNOW : Once a volatile topic that would often cause public outrage and spark off political blame games, electricity is a lost poll issue in 2024, even as voting takes place amid sizzling temperatures.
Traditionally, electricity along with roads and water formed the core issues for voters and political parties alike in Uttar Pradesh.
Roads and water infrastructure still stir the electorate with reports of locals threatening to boycott polls in one part of the state or the other.
Voters in a Rae Bareli village, for example, decided to boycott voting over a broken road connecting them to the district headquarters. They agreed to cast their vote in the afternoon only after Rahul Gandhi, the Congress candidate, rushed to the village and assured villagers.
However, electricity supply has surprisingly faded from the electoral discourse.
Traditionally, as summer approached, verbal duels between the state and the Central government would invariably ensue, with both sides pointing fingers at each other for the power crisis gripping the state. The sweltering summer months would witness protests and widespread discontent among residents due to prolonged power outages.
Gradually, the narrative has shifted over the years. Opposition parties find themselves unable to capitalise on this formerly potent issue, given the lack of any discernible power crisis to exploit.
Analysts point out that the absence of electricity-related grievances reflects positively on the ruling government’s performance which the BJP is trying to cash in on. “Power supply in the country, including UP, has improved considerably over the years, and hence, gradually lost its importance as a poll issue,” Shashi Kant Pandey, a political scientist, said.
The transformation of UP’s power scene has been a gradual process, attributed to various factors such as increased generation capacity, infrastructure upgrade, etc. Augmentation of power generation got special attention under SP and BSP regimes. The next SP regime under Akhilesh Yadav also continued to focus on setting up new power plants. The efforts, however, proved inadequate with the state facing massive load shedding during summer because of huge demand-supply gap.
“Now, there is no demandsupply gap even though the demand these days is touching 30,000 mw,” said a UPPCL official. “UPPCL has tried its best to avoid power outages at poll time though reports of supply disruptions due to overloading of system and local breakdowns have started coming,” said UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma.