Scared of ‘jinx’, CM keeps away from Noida

With Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav choosing not to visit the city for the laptop distribution programme on Monday, residents feel that like his predecessors Samajwadi Party’s (SP) young face, too, is afraid of the Noida jinx.

With Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav choosing not to visit the city for the laptop distribution programme on Monday, residents feel that like his predecessors Samajwadi Party’s (SP) young face, too, is afraid of the Noida jinx.

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“Some local leaders told Yadav not to visit Noida as it is believed that his predecessors who had visited the city lost power thereafter,” said a senior UP government official.

A total of 2,476 students from Gautam Budh Nagar had to brave huge traffic jams to reach Ghaziabad to collect their laptops. “The students had to travel 30-40km to reach Ghaziabad. If he is going to every district for laptop distribution, I can’t understand why he did not come to Noida,” said a school teacher.

On April 2, the CM had inaugurated development projects worth R3,300 crore in Noida from his residence in Lucknow. The last time Yadav had visited the city was just before the state Assembly elections last year.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Summit held in Greater Noida in May was attended by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and several other union ministers, but Yadav gave this big occasion, too, a miss. This was one of the rare cases when the chief minister of a state did not welcome the prime minister.

“Before elections, he had promised he would pay full attention to Noida’s issues and keep visiting the city. But it is sad that he avoided the city due to superstitions,” said Atul Thakur, a resident of Sector 53.

According to local politicians, the Noida jinx started when chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh lost his chair in 1988 right after returning from a meeting in Noida. But the superstition grew stronger when Singh’s successor ND Tiwari, too, lost power after visiting the city.

“Be it Mulayam Singh, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh or Mayawati — no chief minister came to Noida because of this jinx. But the young and educated chief minister could have changed this perception,” said Ayush Chauhan, a law student and NSUI leader.