Yogi demolishes 'Noida jinx' as BJP heads towards second consecutive term at office

Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 10 : With Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returning to power for the second consecutive term in Uttar Pradesh, it has also demolished the jinx that is linked to the visit of any incumbent chief minister to Noida.
The jinx emerged in 1988 which states that if the sitting chief minister visits Noida then he or she will be staring at the 'probable defeat' in the next Assembly elections.
Mayawati who paid visit to the city in 2011 during her tenure as chief minister of UP but failed to return to power in the 2012 Assembly polls.
Soon after Yogi was declared chief minister by the party in 2017 following the party's massive victory in the Assembly elections, Yogi along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the 'jinxed' city of Noida for the inauguration of Delhi Metro's Magenta Line in the month of December. The Prime Minister had addressed this jinx in his address and lauded him for "dismissing the superstition".
In November last year, Yogi visited Noida for the foundation stone ceremony along with PM Modi.
Interestingly, crushing the jinx repeatedly with will and might, Yogi also took a jibe at his political opponent and former chief minister of the state Akhilesh Yadav who during his tenure as a chief minister from 2012 to 2017 refrained from visiting Noida because of the jinx, and said that his own life was more important for him.
"His own life and power were more important for him instead of the people's interest and developmental work. They refrained from coming to Noida since they had no agenda for the betterment of the people," he said.
Notably, the extent of the impact of the jinx could be analysed from the three instances when in 2013, Akhilesh Yadav as chief minister skipped Asian Development Bank (ADB) summit in Noida during the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the chief guest.
The other instance that solidifies this jinx was the inauguration of the Yamuna Expressway in 2012 from Lucknow despite the project running from Greater Noida to Agra.
This followed the political change that took place in the 2012 Assembly elections when Mayawati had to face defeat. It was aligned with her visit to Noida in 2011 for the inauguration of the Dalit Smarak Sthal.
The story of the birth of the jinx goes way back to 1988 when the then chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh had to step down only a few days after his return from Noida.
Mayawati losing power in Uttar Pradesh further led to further strengthening of the Noida jinx.
Veer's successor Narayan Dutt Tiwari too lost his power in the 1989 Assembly elections after he visited the city during his tenure at the office.
However, the BJP led by Yogi has broken this jinx and put it to rest for the rest of the political campaigns in future for all the chief ministers of the state.
As per the Election Commission, Pankaj Singh, sitting MLA from the constituency and son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh won the seat defeating Samajwadi Party's Sunil Choudhary by a margin of 18,1513 votes.