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Will Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath break the ‘Noida jinx’?
Yogi Adityanath, who is two months old in office, announced a decision to visits all the 75 districts of India’s biggest state, the first question was: Will he visit Noida?
From being a cluster of small villages and farmlands, Noida has transformed into a throbbing urban centre. But something has remained unchanged in all these years.
Noida, or the Gautam Budh Nagar district, is a no-go zone for Uttar Pradesh’s chief ministers --- it is widely held that whoever visits the area loses power.
So when chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is two months old in office, announced a decision to visits all the 75 districts of India’s biggest state, the first question was: Will he visit Noida?
“It’s true that previous CMs largely avoided Noida due to some superstition but who knows he may choose to be different or may be not... as of now, nothing is certain,” an officer said.
In his five-year term, Yogi’s predecessor Akhilesh Yadav stayed away. Considered the modern face of his Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh used video links to inaugurate or launch projects in Noida, which has emerged as the residential hub for the middle-class priced out of Delhi.
Akhilesh was only doing what his predecessors, including his father Mulayam Singh and BJP’s Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh, did.
The so-called Noida jinx took root after chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh had to step down in June 1988 a few days after he returned from Noida.
“We hope Yogi will break the jinx and visit Noida. The chief minister should prove that he does not believe in any superstition and he is a modern age leader,” former Congress MLA Bansi Pahadia said.
Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati did brave the superstition. As chief minister, she visited Noida at least four times. But when she lost the 2012 assembly election, the Noida jinx was back in the news.
The fact that Akhilesh stayed away from Noida but still lost the election could help Adityanath make up his mind.
