With Yogi breaking ‘Noida jinx’, city’s realty sector stares at better days

NOIDA: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in effect has broken the so-called ‘Noida jinx’

NOIDA: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in effect has broken the so-called ‘Noida jinx’. The BJP stalwart has been visiting the industrial city on a regular basis and unlike his predecessors; he has visited Noida at least nine times since storming into power in 2017.

CM Yogi Adityanath visited Noida at least nine times since storming into power in 2017. With his win, he has broken the ‘jinx’ that by visiting the city, an incumbent CM loses the post. (Sunil Ghosh / HT PHOTO)

In his last visit, the chief minister had even sought votes from the Noida residents in the name of development. Now that the BJP has won UP for the second consecutive time, it is expected that the realty sector, which has been witnessing a slowdown for the last many years, will stare at better days with a stable government in Lucknow.

“Adityanath had visited Noida as and when required for administrative purposes and also made his stand clear multiple times that he does not believe in the ‘jinx’ that by visiting the city, he will lose the assembly elections in 2022. Now, after a thumping win, he has been able to break the ‘jinx’. In any case, people do not believe in such things and have voted in the name of development and good governance”, said BJP leaders.

“Adityanath ji has ended the superstition. Erstwhile chief ministers had held the view that by merely visiting Noida, they will be defeated and won’t be able to return to power. He has changed all of that by visiting Noida frequently. He has also proved that if you work for development, provide good governance to people and work for the welfare of all communities, you will definitely get the support of the people,” said senior BJP leader Surendra Nagar, who is a Member of Parliament (MP) and the vice-chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

The ‘Noida jinx’ was created long ago and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had tried to break it once, but was defeated electorally, officials said. Many politicians and officials connected her defeat in the 2012 assembly polls to her Noida visit.

The ‘Noida jinx’ was created after several chief ministers of the state, including Veer Bahadur Singh, Narayan Dutt Tiwari and Kalyan Singh could not retain the post of chief minister after visiting the city.

In fact, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav had stayed away from the city and had even inaugurated infrastructure projects in Noida through videoconferencing from Lucknow due to the ‘jinx’, sources said.

Meanwhile, realtors are hoping that since Adityanath has retained the state, Noida will again witness an unprecedented growth. Considered to be the ‘economic capital’ of UP, the city’s realty industry has been grappling with issues such as late delivery of flats and last-mile funding problems.

“We are happy that this election has been won on developmental and good governance issues and Adityanath has retained power. Since this government is building an international airport in Jewar and has enabled setting up of manufacturing units in Gautam Budh Nagar district, we hope the developmental model will continue and the realty sector will recover from the present slowdown. With a stable government, we hope to witness uninterrupted growth and fast decision-making,” said Prashant Kumar Tiwari, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India’s (CREDAI) western UP chapter.