It’s not without reason that “Forbes” magazine recently ranked Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi the sixth most powerful woman in the world. It needed only a word from her for Rae Bareli, her parliamentary constituency, to have uninterrupted power supply.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav late Tuesday issued orders to also ensure round-the-clock power supply to Amethi, the parliamentary constituency of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
officials of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) confirmed to IANS that a missive to this effect was received from senior officials.
The decision to include the two districts in the ‘No power-cut VVIP list’ was taken after a request was made by Sonia Gandhi to Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Sonia had walked up to Yadav before parliamentary proceedings started in the Lok Sabha Tuesday and had requested the Yadav chieftain to “do something about the power crisis in Rae Bareli”.
“Soniaji told Netaji that owing to poor power supply, the farmers and industry in the district were suffering,” said a source, who confirmed that Mulayam Singh Yadav responded warmly to the request.
After the days proceedings in parliament were stalled, Yadav rang up his son and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and asked him to ensure 24×7 power supply to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s constituencies.
Following this, orders were issued to UPPCL officials, compliance with which was ensured Wednesday morning.
So far, districts exempt from power cuts include Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav is MP from here), Kannauj (the chief minister’s wife Dimple Yadav is a first-time MP from here), Rampur (Urban Development Minister Azam Khan is an MLA from here) and Etawah (the home district of the Yadav family).
The state reels under an unprecedented power crisis. Urban areas suffer outages that last up to four hours, while the countryside routinely faces up to eight hours with no power.