War of words intensified in U.P. over power cuts in peak summer

The war of words over power outage intensified in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, May 26, 2026, with opposition parties claiming that public anger has increased due to power outages due to insufficient steps taken by the government. Responding to criticism, the government said the state had reached its highest ever electricity supply.

Deputy Leader of Opposition Pramod Tiwari said, “We are constantly witnessing videos and pictures of power outages causing problems for the common people. I served as the Power Minister of Uttar Pradesh. There are two key issues that the current government has failed to address or analyze, leading to the power crisis. First, the government needs to estimate and forecast the overall electricity demand during the peak summer season. The second issue is to expand the power generation capacity as per the projected demand. The Ministry of Power has failed on both these parameters.” In the Rajya Sabha and with a senior MP from the Congress party Hindu.

“If the ministry fails to gauge demand, alternative arrangements need to be made, but the Energy ministry has also failed in this. There are also corruption issues that need to be checked,” he added.

Electrical workers union, Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidhyut Parishad Abhiyanta Sangh, alleged that the state’s electricity system has collapsed due to the vertical system and arbitrariness of energy management.

In its statement, the Workers’ Union said, “The state’s electricity system is collapsing due to the vertical system and arbitrariness of the top management. The Power Corporation management arbitrarily implemented the vertical system in many metropolitan cities, including the capital Lucknow, on the orders of the capitalists, although all employee organizations had already said that the vertical system could derail the capital’s electricity system, but the energy management did not listen to anyone and this system was forcefully implemented in a dictatorial manner.”

The statement said, “With the implementation of this system, thousands of contract workers were dismissed from their jobs in the capital Lucknow, hundreds of technicians, office assistants and other qualified and trained personnel were suspended without any justification, and arbitrary orders were imposed on electrical workers.”

Samajwadi Party (SP) said the government is not taking immediate measures to address the challenges and difficulties faced by the people.

“In a state with a large population like Uttar Pradesh, in this scorching hot season, the lives of the poor, middle class, farmers, small businessmen and millions of other hard-working people have become extremely painful due to low supply and power outages and people are expressing their anger in various ways. The government has failed to take immediate measures to address the difficulties and difficulties faced by the people regarding electricity supply,” party spokesperson Ammeque Jamei said.

Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister AK Sharma said that the highest ever electricity supply in the state was achieved on May 24.

“Highest ever electricity supply in Uttar Pradesh. At 10:39 pm last night, the State electricity supply reached an all-time high of 31,804 MW. Thus, we surpassed our own record of 31,486 MW recorded on 11.06.2025. UP has outperformed all other States of the country as in previous years. Forgetting the established cadre system, an average outage of only 1.5 hours in rural areas Otherwise, we have provided electricity everywhere 24 hours a day and are working day and night to resolve local obstacles,” Minister X wrote.