Kerala power crisis blame game on: Pinarayi says Chandy-era flaws led to deal rejection by regulatory panel

The blame game over Kerala's power crisis intensified as former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hit back at the state government, tracing the roots of the shortage to a 2015 power purchase agreement prepared by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) under the Oommen Chandy-led UDF administration.

The exchange comes as the KSEB has appealed to its own employees to cut power usage during peak hours — a message issued amid mounting public protests over the state's electricity shortage.

The ruling UDF government has pinned the crisis on the previous LDF administration's cancellation of a 465-MW long-term power purchase agreement. Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph reiterated that lapses during the LDF's tenure were responsible for the current shortfall, arguing that the present government should not bear sole blame.

Vijayan dismissed this as a "futile attempt to shift the blame," accusing the UDF of using the charge to mask its own administrative failures. In a detailed social media post, he laid out his defence point by point.

The 2015 agreement, Vijayan said, was signed without prior clearance from the Central government, the state government, or the regulatory commission — a lapse that led the commission to cancel it years later. His government, he said, intervened only to prevent the state from losing access to the power under the deal, using special powers to permit temporary purchases while the agreement's status was under review.

The then KSEB CMD, Dr B Ashok — now Higher Education Secretary — had flagged that continuing the agreement would cause the utility financial losses, a position Vijayan cited to argue that officials and the regulator, not his government, ultimately rejected the deal.

Even after the Appellate Tribunal invalidated the agreement, Vijayan said his government pursued the matter to the Supreme Court, where the case remains unresolved.

Vijayan further argued that despite a severe El Niño event and rainfall deficit during the LDF's tenure, the state avoided power cuts by buying electricity at higher rates and entering power-swapping arrangements with surplus states — even when peak demand touched 6,100 MW last April. By contrast, he said, the current shortage is emerging despite demand falling to 4,800–4,900 MW, calling it a sign of "the government's incompetence" rather than a supply constraint.

He also pointed to Karnataka's sale of surplus power outside the state at ₹9.08 per unit in July, questioning why Kerala —  willing to pay upwards of ₹10 per unit — has been unable to secure power even from a neighbouring state ruled by the same party as the Centre.

Widening the critique, Vijayan alleged that India's power shortages are, in part, engineered to benefit large private conglomerates controlling a majority of the country's generation capacity, and accused the UDF government of laying the groundwork for privatising Kerala's power sector — a plan he said was outlined in its White Paper.

He said, noting the public anger over unscheduled, unannounced power cuts, that the criticism of the government's handling of the crisis now cuts across party lines.