Akhilesh Yadav in Noida today years after avoiding it due to 'jinx'

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to address a press conference in Noida on February 3 as part of his poll campaign in Western Uttar Pradesh.

The seven-phase Uttar Pradesh election beginning February 10 is considered to be a fight between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. Three seats of Gautam Buddh Nagar district – Noida, Jewar, and Dadri – will go to the polls in the first phase on February 10.

This will be Yadav’s first visit to the Noida Gautam Buddha Nagar district which he avoided as chief minister purportedly because of the ‘jinx’ associated with the town neighboring Delhi.

The political superstition that has stuck to Noida, another name for Gautam Buddh Nagar, for long popular as ‘Noida jinx’ is that visiting the town brings bad luck to chief ministers and hence are not re-elected.

Yadav’s visit comes after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s remark that he feared visiting the town because of the superstition. Adityanath has been trashing the jinx by his regular visits to the NCR town, even ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls. During one his of visits earlier this month, Adityanath said that he would beat the “Noida jinx” and come back to power, unlike his predecessors.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also criticised leaaders believing in the jinx at his virtual rally addressing voters of western Uttar Pradesh earlier this week.

Yadav stayed away from Noida as chief minister between 2012 and 2017. He even skipped the Asian Development Bank Summit held in Noida in May 2013. Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the chief guest at the event. Yadav would often inaugurate projects in the town virtually. In April 2013, 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 Dadri lynching victim Mohammad Akhlaq in Lucknow, instead of visiting the family in Dadri. Before him, other Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers, including, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh, ND Tiwari, and Rajnath Singh avoided going to Noida as well.

After his defeat in 2017 assembly polls, Yadav, while on his way to Delhi, briefly stopped in Noida for five minutes to greet party workers.