‘Supari To Kill Me…Time To Bring Out Sudarshan Chakra': UP Energy Minister AK Sharma's Power Tussle
In his headlong clash with power sector employees, AK Sharma has alluded to a 'supari' being taken out to finish him and invoking the 'Sudarshan chakra'
Once a powerful bureaucrat of the nation, Energy and Urban Development Minister AK Sharma seems powerless in his political avatar.
In his headlong clash with power sector employees first over controlling line losses, corruption and then proposed privatisation of discoms, Sharma has in recent days alluded to a 'supari" being taken out to finish him and invoking the 'Sudarshan chakra" to deal with his alleged conspirators.
His anger against top officers and engineers burst out on July 24, when at the end of a high-level meeting in Lucknow he said that officials had lost touch with the problems people face on the ground and he was not there to listen to their false data and 'bakwaas".
He said that officials were neck-deep in corruption and sending inflated bills to customers and then reducing them after taking bribes, malfunctioning transformers were not being replaced for weeks on end, vigilance raids were being carried out on small defaulters sparing the bigger ones and manpower deployment had become a source to extort money.
'You all don't realise the kind of resentment on the ground that I have to face. People are constantly complaining to me and other politicians but there is no effort to deal with their problems. It seems some people have taken a supari to tarnish my image. I know where you are being instigated from" Sharma had lashed out.
ऊर्जा मंत्री श्री ए के शर्मा की सुपारी लेने वालों में विद्युत कर्मचारी के वेश में कुछ अराजक तत्व भी हैं …कुछ विद्युत कर्मचारी नेता काफ़ी दिनों से परेशान घूम रहे हैं क्योंकि उनके सामने ऊर्जा मंत्री जी झुकते नहीं हैं।
ये वही लोग हैं जिनकी वजह से बिजली विभाग बदनाम हो रहा…
— AK Sharma Office (@AKSharmaOffice) July 28, 2025
Who is AK Sharma?
A Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1988 batch, Sharma enjoys the reputation of a 'doer' and ensuring 'fast delivery'. He worked closely with Narendra Modi when he was the CM of Gujarat and was credited with orations the 'Vibrant Gujarat" summit and later moved into the PMO when Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014.
He served in the PMO till suddenly taking a VRS at the start of 2021 and was shortly afterwards made the Vice President in the state BJP and an MLC.
When the BJP rode back to power in 2022, he was made a cabinet minister and given the two big departments of Power and Urban Development.
His troubles seem to have started when the UP government proposed Privatisation of power distribution companies (discoms).
This had thousands of engineers and linemen up in arms who protested the move and struck work.
In a social media post put out by Sharma's official account on Monday, it is stated that 'the move to privatise Discoms has been taken collectively by the government at the highest level. When officials are aware that AK Sharma cannot transfer a Junior Engineer, how can he take such a big decision as to privatize discoms all alone. Frequent protests and strikes are being carried out and inappropriate language has been used against me and my family at one such protest outside my residence. There is a planned effort to tarnish the image of the power minister and it seems all those who are jealous of me have come together".
Sharma's outbursts have come after weeks of being pilloried on social media where he is seen by heckled by people for power cuts while on visits to to districts and reports of power outages while he has been holding meetings.
Sharma's social media account has blamed 'some anti-social power department employee union leaders are conspiring to show the minister in bad light. This is because the minister refuses to bow to their wishes. Their union leaders did not resort to such protests when the Agra discom was privatized during the Mayawati government. They were silent as they were obliged and sent on foreign tours".
Sharma has been vocal against union leaders for the last few weeks.
In a public meeting held in Mau recently, he said, 'I have been trying to reason and motivate the power employees to improve their functioning for the last three years but to no avail. Now the time has come to weild the Sudarshan Chakra like Lord Krishna did against the Kauravas. But I am showing restraint. Those who think that the minister holds no power and cannot discipline them let me tell them that if like Lord Ram release the arrow nobody will be able to save them from here to the Rashtrapati Bhawan (President's House).
Sharma has been in the offensive over the past few days and his office social media account recently released an audio clip of a former MLA and an Executive Engineer, where the later refused to heed to the former legislators complaint over a 12 hour power outage in the city and repeatedly telling him to seek redressal from the helpline number.
Sharma was quick to reprimand officials taking out a press release to state 'helpline numbers are only a secondary form of receiving complaints. Engineers will have to take complaints directly and solve them. This has been clarified earlier also but some officials deliberately hide behind official procedures to avoid work and are sabotaging the department".
With Sharma being in the offensive, senior officials have pulled their socks up but clearly it seems that it is not the end of the chapter yet.
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First Published:
August 01, 2025, 18:06 IST
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