The fear of a jinx became so strong that during his entire five-year term, the then CM Akhilesh Yadav stayed away from the area
When 45-year-old, saffron-clad, UP chief minister Yogi Aditynath made successive visits to Noida this week, he broke a superstition that goes back all the way to 1988.
UP CM Vir Bahadur Singh of Congress was firmly ensconced in his seat. He visited Noida in 1988 and then lost power within days. The theory of a jinx took hold and has believed by politicos ever since.
BSP chief Mayawati tried to break the jinx when she visited Noida four times as the chief minister. But then she lost the 2012 Assembly election and one of the factors held responsible for the defeat was the 'Noida jinx'.
The fear of a jinx became so strong that during his entire five-year term, the then CM Akhilesh Yadav stayed away from the area. The situation was all the more ironic as Akhilesh was considered the modern face of the Samajwadi Party (SP). Throughout his tenure, he used video calls to inaugurate or launch projects in Noida and Greater Noida and never visited any of these two regions.
In August 2012, Akhilesh inaugurated the Yamuna Expressway from Lucknow and avoided travelling to Noida. The following year as well, he inaugurated many infrastructural projects in Gautam Budh Nagar without visiting the city.
In April 2016, Akhilesh skipped two events in Noida, which were attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee.
Before the 2017 Assembly polls in UP, Akhilesh had, in December 2016, launched several development projects in Noida through videoconferencing. He finally did set his foot in Noida but only in June this year, when he was no more the CM. He made a brief stopover in Noida while he travelling to Delhi from his family pocketborough, Saifai in UP.
Yogi Adityanath, who shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday during the inauguration of the Magenta Line, became the first CM to do after years.
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