The high-voltage tension between the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Congress has hit the residents of Rae Bareli and Amethi — lok Sabha constituencies represented by the Gandhi family. The Akhilesh Government has ordered power outage for three hours daily in the twin constituencies.
Rae Bareli and Amethi were among the nine cities in the State which were listed for uninterrupted power supply.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the MP from Rae Bareli, while Amethi is represented by her son and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Surprisingly, other seven cities including Etawah, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Sambal, Rampur, Noida and lucknow, are still getting uninterrupted power, though the State is reeling under power crisis. However, power officials in Rae Bareli claimed that the three hour outage was a temporary decision and it could be withdrawn when the situation improves.
In its recent documents filed by the UP Power Corporation limited(UPPCl) to the UP State Electricity Regularity Commission (UPSERC), it stated that 24-hour power supply in these cities have been allowed keeping in view the importance of these places and scheduled/unscheduled visits of VVIPS to these cities.
Meanwhile, UP Congress spokesperson Amarnath Agarwal said that the matter seems to be political as no other city is going through such a phase. "It is unfortunate that the UP Government is targeting the common people of Rae Bareli and Amethi due to political reasons," he alleged.
The decision to provide 24-hour power to Rae Bareli and Amethi was taken in May last year by the Samajwadi Party Government after Sonia Gandhi personally sought
the favour from Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The relationship between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress touched its lowest ebb in the recent past after verbal spat between Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma and SP leaders.