Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday, 28 May 2026, launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that the much-touted 'Gujarat Model' of governance has collapsed in the state, citing rampant electricity supply failures and administrative dysfunction.

Context

Posting on X with a video, Yadav wrote: 'यूपी में गुजरात मॉडल का ट्रांसफ़ॉर्मर फुँक गया है' — loosely translated as, 'In UP, the transformer of the Gujarat Model has blown out.' He alleged that meters are running without actual power supply and that the public is chasing BJP functionaries for answers. The post was accompanied by the hashtag #बाक़ी_सब_डंका_सी, a phrase suggesting that all other claims by the BJP ring hollow.

Yadav also took a pointed dig at BJP's senior leadership, stating: 'The trainers of the greats have themselves failed — what hope is there for their disciples?' — a reference widely read as a jibe at the BJP's central leadership and its inability to deliver on governance promises in Uttar Pradesh.

Policy Backdrop

The 'Gujarat Model' became a cornerstone of BJP's 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election campaign, with promises to replicate the power-sector and infrastructure reforms that Gujarat undertook between 2001 and 2014. Those reforms included unbundling of electricity distribution, aggressive metering, and improvements in per-capita power availability — all of which the BJP credited to then-Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Since coming to power in UP in 2017, the BJP has repeatedly invoked the Gujarat template as a governance benchmark. However, electricity supply, billing irregularities, and distribution infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh — India's most populous state — have remained persistent points of political contention, with the opposition consistently highlighting gaps between promise and delivery.

Stakeholders and Impact

The immediate stakeholders are UP's electricity consumers, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas where transformer failures and erratic supply are recurring grievances. Yadav's framing — 'meters running without power' — alludes to complaints about billing without commensurate supply, a long-standing issue flagged by consumer groups in the state.

For the Samajwadi Party, the attack is part of a broader political strategy of holding the BJP accountable on basic infrastructure ahead of future electoral cycles. Opposition parties across India have routinely used state-level governance shortfalls to challenge the BJP's national 'Gujarat Model' narrative, and Yadav's post fits squarely within that pattern.

What's Next

The UP government has not yet issued a formal response to Yadav's allegations. Any official data releases on power supply metrics or statements in the Uttar Pradesh state assembly will be closely watched. The Samajwadi Party is expected to continue amplifying ground-level infrastructure grievances as it positions itself ahead of the next round of state polls.

Yadav's post signals that electricity and basic services will remain a live political battleground in Uttar Pradesh, with the opposition seeking to erode the BJP's governance credibility in the state it has held since 2017.