Several retired bureaucrats say that Noida has always been a cash-rich cow hence bureaucrats wanted to keep politicians away from it. That’s how the myth around the Noida Jinx lasted for decades.
New Delhi: With a series of visits during his five-year term and subsequent victory in the current Assembly election, it may be safe to say that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has successfully broken the Noida Jinx — a superstitious belief that whoever visits the city will lose the chief ministership.
It is also a message to the future Chief Ministers not to ignore the city famous for its residential societies, industrial hubs and corporate offices just to safeguard their seats. The Noida Jinx has been in the political atmosphere of Uttar Pradesh for at least three decades.
Yogi’s first visit to the industrial hub was on September 23, 2017, following which Akhilesh Yadav had said that the effect of the Noida Jinx would be seen in the coming years.
Several retired bureaucrats say that Noida has always been a cash-rich cow hence bureaucrats wanted to keep politicians away from it. That’s how the myth around the Noida Jinx lasted for decades.
Yogi’s first visit to the industrial hub was on September 23, 2017, following which Akhilesh Yadav had said that the effect of the Noida Jinx would be seen in the coming years. Adityanath had taken a dig at the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader for avoiding Noida by saying being in the office of Chief Minister “their own life and position of power was more important than the people of the district”.
I am very happy. Due to his dress, a few people find it fashionable to believe that CM Yogi Adityanath is not modern enough but it is Yogi Adityanath Ji who has done what CMs of UP never did — he came to Noida
— Prime Minister narendra modi
Adityanath, who has made many visits to the NCR town, even ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls, during the GIMS visit said he would “beat the Noida Jinx” and come back to power despite visiting Noida, unlike his predecessors.
“It was all the more important for me to come here as previous chief ministers were afraid of coming to Gautam Budh Nagar,” Adityanath had told the media.
A couple of months before the UP Assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had responded saying he was very happy that Adityanath had visited Noida. “I am very happy. Due to his dress, a few people find it fashionable to believe that CM Yogi Adityanath is not modern enough but it is Yogi Adityanath Ji who has done what CMs of UP never did — he came to Noida. Faith is important but blind faith is not desirable,” he had said.
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Modi had further said that when he had become the Chief Minister, he was asked to avoid certain places because they were “inauspicious.”
“I was clear I would go to all those places in my first year itself. There were superstitions associated with Noida and in his own style, Yogi Adityanath Ji rose above them and came to Noida,” he said.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, a post-graduate in environmental engineering from Australia, visited Noida on February 3 after having believed in the Noida Jinx for at least 10 years.
The former UP CM addressed a press conference just before the UP Assembly election began. Yadav had shied away from visiting Noida during his tenure as the Chief Minister between 2012 and 2017. He did not attend the Asian Development Bank Summit organised in Noida in May 2013.
The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the chief guest of the event. Yadav would often inaugurate projects in the town virtually. In April 2013, for example, he launched the Rs 3,300-crore development projects, including access to the six-lane Yamuna Expressway, through a video link from Lucknow. Yadav even met family members of the Dadri lynching victim, Mohammad Akhlaq, in Lucknow, instead of visiting the family in Dadri.
In the late eighties, two CMs — Vir Bahadur Singh and N D Tiwari — lost their jobs just after visiting Noida. Bahadur Singh had to step down in June 1988, a few days after he returned from the city.
Before Yadav, other Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers, including, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh, N D Tiwari and Rajnath Singh avoided going to Noida as well.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who was the Chief Minister of UP between 2007 and 2012, had defied the myth twice during her tenure and had subsequently lost her job. In November 2007, she became the first UP CM to set foot in Noida in 13 years when she attended a wedding and an expo in the town. Later in 2011, she was in Noida to inaugurate the Noida’s Dalit Prerna Sthal.
Anup Verma is a journalist with more than 12 years of experience. He has worked with The Pioneer and Millennium Post in the past. He also worked as a Media Advisor with the MCD. Currently, he is the editor of The Theorist.