Samajwadi Party chief and former CM Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is likely to visit Noida today after a gap of ten years. The last time Yadav had campaigned in Noida was in 2012. During his previous visit, Yadav had taken out a cycle rally from Noida Sector 16 to Dadri via Gadhi Chaukhandi. However, after 2012, Akhilesh Yadav never visited the city even during the 2014 by-elections, general elections, 2017 assembly elections, and the 2019 general election.
It is said that ‘Noida jinx’ is behind Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to maintain a distance from Noida. The ‘Noida jinx’ is a superstition that if a sitting chief minister of the state goes to Noida during his/her tenure, then their party loses the next assembly elections. However, Akhilesh Yadav had lost the 2017 polls despite maintaining a distance from Noida.
However, the present chief minister, Yogi Adityanath had tried to break the superstition by visiting the city multiple times during his chief ministerial tenure. CM Yogi visited Noida for the first time in 2017 on September 23 and September 25. After this, he paid multiple visits to the city in July 2018 and also in November last year.
It’s believed that former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers ND Tiwari, Mayawati and Kalyan Singh were ousted from office after visiting Noida.
The BJP has been critical of Akhilesh Yadav for not visiting the city due to a superstition. Yadav’s decision to visit the city may be a strategy to not give the saffron party more fodder over the issue. Yadav, who was in adjacent Ghaziabad along with RLD chief Jayant Yadav yesterday, said that the people of Uttar Pradesh want to end negative politics and start moving forward.
Noida, in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, goes to the polls on February 10.