“Bantadhar”, a political slang meaning “debris”, has been heard frequently in Madhya Pradesh’s power circles for over two decades, since the overthrow of the Digvijay Singh-led Congress government by the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003. Now the man himself is back in the rival party with the same taunt for highlighting the recent power crisis in the state.
Joining his party colleagues in criticizing the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, Singh tweeted in Hindi, “This is quite bizarre. Hydroelectric projects generate all the electricity during monsoon. There is no demand from the agriculture sector. MP has the capacity to produce more power than required. Then why do we have outages? This is beyond comprehension. Who is ‘Bantadhar’? Controversy over cuts. Thanks for the darkness brought by Shivraj Sarkar. The power went out, but pay the bill in full.”
The later part of Singh’s decade-long rule was, in the early novices, affected by heavy load-shedding. The state saw prolonged power cuts after its separation from the central state of Chhattisgarh in 2000 and most of the thermal power plants collapsed in the tribal state’s part, leaving Madhya Pradesh plunged into darkness.
The BJP had coined the term ‘Bantadhar’ for Singh over the alleged misgovernance in the 2003 assembly elections.
Apart from the lack of electricity, the saffron party criticized his regime for poor roads and lack of water supply. After the Congress leader’s quip, the BJP responded quickly. Party spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal said that Bantadhar has been the culture of the Congress party. “There are transient problems with electricity, roads and water and these will be resolved soon,” he said.
“We have created a model of development since 2003 and the people will respond appropriately in the 2023 assembly elections,” the BJP leader said.
With an apparent shortage of coal and a slowdown in hydropower generation, many areas of Madhya Pradesh, especially rural areas, are facing prolonged power cuts with power distribution companies resorting to load-shedding.
Not only the Congress party, but some BJP MLAs also spoke on the situation. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said that the administration will deal with the power crisis even if they have to buy electricity at Rs 20 per unit.
The MP government has got relief in the form of 1,700 MW hydel power, which includes 520 MW from Omkareshwar and 1,036 MW from Indira Sagar Plant. The state on Thursday managed to increase the daily supply to 10,236 MW, a significant improvement over the past few days.
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