PM Modi recalls ‘Noida Jinx’ while inaugurating Jewar Airport. What is it and why were CMs and PMs afraid of it?

PM Modi inaugurated the Noida International Airport on Saturday (March 28). During his speech he recalled how the place was abandoned to its fate due to a superstition for the longest time giving rise to the term ‘Noida jinx’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing the crowds at the inauguration of the Noida International Airport in Noida’s Jewar on Saturday, when he spoke about the superstition prevailing over the city. Following this, he took a direct dig at the Samajwadi Party in the process.

“Noida was abandoned to its fate because of blind superstition,” he said, referring to the long-held political belief that visiting Noida was an ill omen for those in power. Earlier rulers were so afraid of losing their chairs that they avoided coming here altogether.

He further shared a personal anecdote, “I remember when the Samajwadi Party was in government, and I had planned a visit to Noida. The CM was so rattled that he tried to talk me out of coming here. But I told him, I am going to seek the blessings of that land, which will give me the opportunity to serve for a long time to come.”

He spoke about the so-called Noida jinx that was pretty prevalent at the time.

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What was the Noida jinx?

It was during the time before the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh that the so-called ‘Noida jinx’ was coined. The jinx held that any sitting Chief Minister who visited the city would lose the next Assembly election, and so for nearly three decades, the state’s most powerful politicians took it extremely seriously.

The jinx first began in June 1988 when Chief Minister Veer Bahadur Singh was asked to step down just days after returning from Noida. This was followed by a string of similar beliefs. ND Tiwari in 1989, Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1995, and Kalyan Singh in 1999 became casualties of the superstition. All of them lost power after visiting the city.

The situation at times was comical because of the lengths the leader went to avoid setting foot in the city. In 2001, then-chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Rajnath Singh inaugurated the DND Flyover, connecting Noida to Delhi, from the Delhi end to avoid the jinx.

Akhilesh Yadav skipped the Asian Development Bank Summit in Noida in 2013, even though the chief guest was then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the event.

Who broke the jinx?

It was UP CM Yogi Adityanath who finally broke the jinx. He visited Noida several times since taking office in 2017, and went on to win a second consecutive term in 2022.

This was not all. PM Modi visited the Greater Noida area for the first time in 2019 to launch development projects, including the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute of Archaeology, and later won the 2019 general assembly elections.

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The Times Of Bengal