LUCKNOW, May 23 -- A 'nightly crisis' unfolded across Uttar Pradesh as the ongoing heatwave has pushed the state's power infrastructure under severe stress, triggering prolonged outages, transformer failures, even at night, along with widespread public protests in several districts. In Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Bahraich, Lakhimpur and Gorakhpur, among other districts, residents are facing hours-long power cuts amid the blistering heat. Officials attributed the crisis to an unprecedented surge in electricity demand driven by continuous use of cooling appliances, which has overloaded transformers and distribution lines. The power crisis has escalated into a political flashpoint, with both opposition leaders and ruling BJP legislators flagging failing electricity infrastructure, just months before the state assembly elections. On Friday, BJP MLA (Lucknow East) OP Srivastava wrote to energy minister AK Sharma, raising concerns over alleged undeclared power cuts and inconvenience being faced by residents in his constituency comprising areas like Indira Nagar, Munshipulia, Laxmanpuri, Ravindrapalli, Nishatganj, Kalyanpur, Mahanagar, Vikas Nagar and Gomti Nagar, among others. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav wrote on X that while electricity demand and tariffs were increasing, supply was not keeping pace and sought to question the government's planning regarding new generation capacity. UP Congress Committee president Ajay Rai demanded that the state government comes out with a white paper detailing power production before 2017 and now. In a post on X, BSP chief Mayawati said people across UP - particularly the poor, middle class, farmers, small traders and labourers - were suffering because of power shortages and frequent cuts in the scorching heat. She said anger among the public over the deteriorating power situation was increasingly visible and was being widely reflected in media reports and public protests. Responding to the concerns, energy minister AK. Sharma said he welcomed suggestions from both ruling party legislators and opposition leaders and assured that all possible measures would be taken to address public grievances. "During the SP government, average power demand in UP used to be around 13,000mw. Today, it has crossed 30,000mw and we are meeting the entire demand unlike during the SP and BSP regimes when large demand-supply gaps led to extensive scheduled and unscheduled power cuts across urban and rural areas," he said over phone from Mau....