Delhi Minister Refutes Arvind Kejriwal's Claims On Power Outage

Delhi Power Minister Ashish Sood strongly refuted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal's claims about power cuts in the national capital's Jagatpur Extension area.

He labelled Mr Kejriwal's allegations as exaggerated and politically motivated.

Mr Sood assured that electricity in the area has improved, describing the reported outages as minor incidents rather than prolonged interruptions.

Mr Sood challenged Mr Kejriwal's statements on social media, noting that data from the past year shows 21,597 power cuts lasting an hour or more -- an average of 59 outages per day.

He also dismissed Mr Kejriwal's claims of no power cuts over the last decade as misleading, accusing him of spreading false information.

To back his argument, Mr Sood cited planned outages conducted for maintenance purposes and shared January 2025 data, which recorded 3,278 power cuts.

He highlighted improvements made under his leadership compared to the previous administration and outlined initiatives like a 24x7 control room, joint monitoring with DISCOMs and DTL, and readiness to procure extra power when needed.

Mr Sood criticised Mr Kejriwal for lacking administrative experience, claiming his team withheld critical information.

Using State Load Dispatch Centre data, he countered the AAP leader's statements and reiterated efforts to ensure stable power supply across Delhi.

Notably, in the run-up to this year's Assembly Elections in Delhi, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress had made a promise to continue providing free electricity to the residents of the national capital if they come to power by defeating the AAP.

The free electricity scheme of the previous AAP government was among several freebies which were believed to be quite popular among the Delhi residents.

The free electricity plan of the then AAP government, according to political observers, also played a key role in boosting its credibility to a considerable extent among the masses. However, plagued by graft allegations and the imprisonment of key leaders including Kerjiwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh, the AAP suffered a major blow to its credibility ahead of the 2025 Assembly elections.

The change of leadership after Mr Kerjiwal walked out on bail in connection with the Delhi excise policy case which saw Atishi at the helm, also did little to help the AAP's campaigning strategy ahead of the elections.

Mr Kejriwal, however, promised to assume the leadership role if the AAP emerges victorious, but the party, after scoring a massive majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly in the 2015 and 2020 elections, managed to win only 22 seats.

The BJP, which bagged 48 seats, went on to form the government eventually under the leadership of Rekha Gupta.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)