Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Atishi said that many residents have been reporting about power outages.
| Photo Credit: File photo

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi once again took a swipe at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over power outages, claiming that the Rekha Gupta-led government is “mismanaging power supply”, which is leading to more outages in the Capital.

Hitting back, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said it is unfortunate that the previous AAP government was only involved in “corruption under the guise of electricity supply”.

Addressing a press conference, Ms. Atishi said, “Before the AAP government came to power, long power cuts were normal in the national capital. Every household used to have inverters. But after Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi in 2015, power cuts became history.”

The former Delhi Chief Minister also cited data presented by the BJP-led Central government in the Rajya Sabha to say that Delhi received round-the-clock power supply under the AAP government.

“But ever since the BJP government came to power, power cuts have been increasing across the city. Today, social media is flooded with complaints,” the Kalkaji MLA said.

The residents, she added, have been “reporting power cuts of five hours in Delhi University, three hours in Kirari, six-eight hours in Rohini Sector 22, eight hours in Tilak Nagar, four hours in Burari, eight hours in Jagatpur village, seven hours in Rajpur Khurd, and two hours in Karawal Nagar”.

According to the former Chief Minister, who also held the Power portfolio, scheduled maintenance outages always come with prior notifications to affected residents. However, sudden faults, transformer failures, and system breakdowns occur without warning. “The fact that people are expressing their anger on social media proves that these are not scheduled maintenance outages — this is a governance failure,” Ms. Atishi said.

The Delhi BJP president also questioned Ms. Atishi, asking her whether it is not true that while showcasing 24-hour electricity supply in Delhi, the AAP government “colluded with private companies” to engage in “electricity subsidy and PPA scams”.

Queries about electricity issues to Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited and BSES discoms failed to elicit any response.