UP Election 2022: Akhilesh all set to break Noida jinx

Lucknow, Feb 02: Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav is all set to break the so-called Noida jinx, as he is likely to visit Gautam Buddha Nagar district on Thursday for the first time in many years.

According to a News18 report, the move seems to be in response to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's remark that Yadav fears visiting the area.

There is a superstition that any chief minister visiting Noida loses power and does not come back to assume the office again.

Though Noida or Gautam Budh Nagar district was developed from a cluster of small villages into the prime economic zone of the state, it has been avoided by past chief ministers.

Akhilesh did not attend the Asian Development Bank Summit organized there in May 2013 though then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the chief guest. Akhilesh Yadav had launched the Rs 3,300 crore development projects, including access to six-lane Yamuna Expressway, through video link from Lucknow.

The family members of Dadri lynching victim Mohammad Ikhlaq were brought to Lucknow from there to meet Akhilesh Yadav.

Before him, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh too avoided going to Noida.

The superstition attached with Noida began with then chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh, who was asked to step down in June 1988 by the central leadership.

Interestingly, he had just returned from Noida, when he was asked to relinquish office. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati braved the superstition during her term as chief minister (2007-12) and attended programmes organised by the state government in Noida.

When the BSP lost power in the 2012 Assembly election, the Noida jinx was back in the news.