Yogi creates history, breaks jinx & belies myths as he enters second term

When Yogi Adityanath takes oath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive term on Friday, he will create history, break jinx and belie myths.

As the first chief minister in 37 years to return to power with an overwhelming majority, Yogi Adityanath has already created history. By the time he completes his second term, he will become the longest serving chief minister of the country's most populous state.

Yogi Adityanath's return to power has also broken the infamous Noida jinx that kept chief ministers away from the district. This 'Noida jinx' gained currency in the state politics after then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Vir Bahadur Singh was forced to resign in 1988, only a few days after he visited Noida. Vir Bahadur Singh's successor Narain Dutt Tiwari lost power in the 1989 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. He also visited Noida as chief minister. The two Noida-jinxed losses weighed heavily on the minds of the chief ministers subsequently and they all favoured skipping Noida visits.

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Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh stayed away from Noida as chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh.

Mulayam Singh Yadav was the first chief minister following the ouster of Vir Bahadur Singh and Narain Dutt Tiwari after Noida visits in 1980s, to bypass Noida. That was Mulayam Singh Yadav's first term as Uttar Pradesh chief minister from 1989 to 1991.

Rajnath Singh, too, inaugurated Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) flyover as Uttar Pradesh chief minister from Delhi, not Noida in 2001.

Similarly, Akhilesh Yadav skipped the Asian Development Bank (ADB) summit that had then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the chief guest in Noida in 2013. Earlier in 2012, Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the Yamuna Expressway from Lucknow even though the 165-km highway runs from Greater Noida to Agra, about 350-km from Lucknow.

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Akhilesh Yadav had become chief minister after Mayawati lost power in 2012. She had incidentally visited Noida as Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2011 to inaugurate the Dalit Smarak Sthal, ignoring the Noida jinx.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, however, visited Noida to inaugurate Delhi Metro's Magenta Line on December 25, 2017. Modi had then scoffed at the Noida jinx saying, "Yogi Adityanath deserves adulation for dismissing superstition that a chief minister should not visit Noida."

The BJP led by Modi won 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Yogi Adityanath too kept visiting Noida even during the election campaign.

In November 2021, Yogi Adityanath told a public gathering during inauguration of the Jewar airport, "My predecessors used to shy away from visiting this district as their own life and position of power were more important to them."

Yogi Adityanath's return to power has also belied the myth of Kalidas Marg where the official residence of the chief minister is situated. It was widely believed that chief ministers did not enjoy consecutive terms because of the Kalidas 'curse' -- the famous Sanskrit poet known to have cut the branch he was sitting on which made the residents of the Kalidas Marg bungalow work against their own interests.

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