PM Modi at a conference on renewable energy. (Photo: Press Trust of India)
In an apparent dig at the Aam Aadmi Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday questioned how parties made pre-election promises to reduce power bills in states that are dependent on electricity from outside.
"During every election, political parties promise free power. People need to think about these promises," said PM Modi at a conference on renewable energy in Delhi. The cost of water, he added, was "basically due to the cost of power".
The Prime Minister's comments came a day after the AAP government took charge with Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister. The party won 67 of Delhi's 70 assembly seats last week, reducing the BJP to just three.
The new AAP government plans to start work on its main promise to slash power bills and provide free water but critics point out that Delhi has a power demand of about 5,000 MW and is largely dependent on other states to meet its requirements.
AAP leaders responded cautiously to PM Modi's comments.
"I don't want to make any adverse comment on the Prime Minister. We only request the PM to help make electricity affordable, because that will do a lot of good for the people of Delhi," said the party's Ashutosh.
Another leader, Ashish Khetan, said power plants may be located in other states but "they produce electricity for the whole country". Reducing power tariff and bringing reforms in the sector cannot be linked to power production, he added.
Mr Khetan said earlier governments in Delhi neither promoted solar energy nor did they have any good policy on alternate sources of energy.
The Congress criticised the Prime Minister's statement referring to Punjab, ruled by the Akali Dal-BJP combine, where farmers have been given free power.
"Mr Prime Minister would you walk the talk& tell the Akali-BJP govt in Punjab to pull the plug on Free power to farmers in Punjab?Or Rhetoric (sic)," tweeted senior Congress leader Manish Tewari.