SP chief to chair PDA meet in Noida in March

Lucknow: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is planning to visit Noida on March 28 to preside over a PDA sammelan in the run-up to party's poll campaign for the 2027 assembly elections.Among the cadre, the announcement is being received with much enthusiasm as it has brought back memories of Akhilesh Yadav leading a bicycle campaign from Noida to Agra in Oct 2011 ahead of 2012 UP elections which finally led to his coronation as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
SP functionaries in Noida are already drawing parallels with the 2011 bicycle rally, stating that this time too the Noida event will pave the way for Akhilesh Yadav being sworn in as the CM for the second time."Our national president is scheduled to preside over a meeting of the Gurjar community as a part of the PDA sammelans underway across the state," said a senior functionary. He said cadre are enthusiastic about SP chief's visit and have already coined slogans drawing parallels to his 2011 bicycle rally from Noida and the party's win in the 2012 elections.Interestingly, SP cardre's enthusiasm is in contrast with the much-hyped "Noida jinx" which had spelt doom for sitting UP CMs. The Noida jinx can be traced back to 1988 when the then CM Veer Bahadur Singh lost his chair after returning from a visit to Noida. The superstition grew stronger the next year after his successor ND Tiwari was also voted out of office barely a month after visiting the city. Thereafter, successive chief ministers – from Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh to Rajnath Singh and Mayawati — avoided visiting Noida, at least ahead of the elections.But the jinx ended when CM Yogi Adityanath and PM Narendra Modi visited Noida in 2018 to inaugurate a 12-km stretch of the Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden segment of Delhi Metro. The two leaders went on to win subsequent elections and have retained their positions as CM and PM till date.