The sudden cancellation of the November 10-11 biennial state power ministers' conference at the last moment continues to be a matter of speculations in power corridors. While only a few are willing to buy that the cancellation was triggered by an unscheduled council of ministers meeting, the general take is that the cancellation indicated that the central government may not yet be ready for big-ticket power sector reforms in view of their impact on electoral politics. During the meet, Union Minister of State for Power(I/C) Raj Kumar Singh was expected to ask states to submit their plans and funding requirements to provide electricity to four crore poor families under the Saubhagya scheme by December next year. A theory doing the rounds is that the central government may not yet be prepared to bear the cost of the scheme. Besides the Saubhagya scheme, the two-day conference was proposed to brainstorm on big-ticket power sector reforms including the direct transfer of subsidy and strict laws obligating distribution utilities to provide round-the-clock power and connection portability. Singh was expected to discuss dishonoring the power purchase agreements (PPAs) by states and also deliberate on ways to accelerate village and household electrification and promotion of digital payments. Since the deliberation agenda concerned the future of the power sector in the country, about a dozen principal secretaries/secretaries of different states and the power ministers of Assam, Goa, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh had already reached Rajgir when the cancellation came. It is also stated that even the central government officials concerned had not been kept in the loop as some very senior officials from the Union power ministry had reached Patna when the cancellation was announced.