Chief minister Yogi Adityanath braves city visit, breaks ‘Noida jinx’

Yogi’s visit was significant as it was a visit by the chief minister of the state to Noida, after a gap of eight years.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath braved a visit to Noida on Saturday, breaking a ‘jinx’ that keeps politicians ruling the state away from the industrial town.

Yogi Adityanath will again visit Noida on December 25 to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inaugurating the Botanical Garden to Kalkaji Mandir Metro station. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

Yogi’s visit was significant as it was a visit by the chief minister of the state to Noida, after a gap of eight years.

Akhilesh Yadav, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, did not visit Noida even once during his tenure.

When asked why he did not visit Noida, even to address important issues, Yadav had said, “Officials advised me not to visit Noida. The jinx is created by the officials.”

However, Yogi Adityanath, who will once again visit Noida on December 25 to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inaugurating the Botanical Garden to Kalkaji Mandir Metro station, said, “I will keep visiting Noida now. I do not believe in such jinxes. And people will continue to vote for us so that we keep visiting Noida.”

The last chief minister, before Adityanath, to visit Noida was Mayawati, who had visited the place to address a public gathering.

However, she lost the subsequent state assembly elections in 2012.

Many politicians and officials connected her defeat to her Noida visit. The ‘Noida jinx’ was created long ago and Mayawati had tried to break it, officials said.

The Noida jinx, in the past, has caught up with several chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, including Veer Bahadur Singh, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Kalyan Singh and Mayawati, who could not retain the post of chief minister after visiting the city.

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.

Yadav’s predecessors, including his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, former UP chief ministers Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh had also avoided Noida during their tenures. Even in the run-up to elections, their rallies were organised in neighbouring Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bulandshahar and Mathura, but not in Noida.

The so-called Noida jinx took root in 1988 after then chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh was asked to step down in June 1988 by the Central leadership. Interestingly, he had just returned from Noida to the state capital when he was asked to step down, officials said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati braved the superstition during her term as chief minister, from 2007-2012 and attended programmes organised by the state government in Noida. However, when BSP lost the assembly elections in 2012, the Noida jinx was back in the news.