Noida, the
industrial hub of India’s biggest state, will vote to elect its representative
in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday. A planned city, Noida gets its name
from New Okhla Industrial Development Authority. The region has been at the
front-and-centre of Uttar Pradesh’s infrastructure push.

A wide network of
expressways criss-crosses the region. Once home to colourful migratory birds
from around the world, Noida now attracts white and blue-collared migrant
workers from across the country.

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The Noida Assembly
constituency came into being in 2012. Since then, it has always remained a Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) stronghold. BJP’s Mahesh Kumar Sharma won the seat in 2012
with 36.87% of the vote.

In the 2014 Noida
by-polls, which took place after Sharma was elected to the Lok Sabha, BJP’s Vimla Batham swept the elections with 60.97% of the vote. Three
years later, in the 2017 Assembly polls, BJP further consolidated its position
with its candidate Pankaj Singh who won 63.83% of the vote.

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The 2017 polls saw
Samajwadi Party (SP) in the second spot and Bahujan Samaj Party in the third.

Pankaj Singh
remains BJP’s candidate in the 2022 Assembly polls. The 43-year-old MLA is the
son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Samajwadi
Party too has repeated its candidate. Sunil Choudhary, despite his massive loss
in the 2017 elections, continues to enjoy SP’s confidence in Noida.

Mayawati-led
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Kripa Ram Sharma from the Noida seat.

Breaking the
string of male candidates is Congress’ Pankhuri Pathak. A legal advisor by
profession, Pathak was with SP’s youth wing until she switched to the Congress.

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Priyanka Gandhi-led
Congress in UP has made a definitive pitch to include more women in the
political process through not only its slogan, “Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun” (I’m a
girl, I can fight), but also through they way in which the Grand Old Party has
distributed tickets.

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While Noida’s
financial significance already makes it a critical constituency, another strange
but interesting phenomenon is the potential breaking of the Noida “jinx”.

The Noida jinx is
a long-held superstition in Uttar Pradesh politics according to which no chief
minister who visits the industrial hub while in power ever returns to the seat
of power.

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The roots of the
superstition go back to the late 1980s when two chief ministers – Vir Bahadur
Singh and ND Tiwari – lost their CM chairs after visiting Noida. Since then,
several leaders including Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati have
steered clear of Noida.

Even Rajnath
Singh, whose son now represents the constituency in the UP Vidhan Sabha, had
avoided visiting Noida as chief minister.

Only Yogi
Adityanath, the 49-year-old monk-turned-politician, has never cowered to the
Noida jinx and has made numerous visits to the region during his term as chief
minister.

Last month,
Akhilesh Yadav, who did not attend the Asian Development Bank Summit as chief
minister because it was organised in Noida, said of the jinx: “It’s good that
both – the chief minister and the prime minister – visited there, now it’s
impact is to be seen.”

However, nearly a
week ago, Akhilesh Yadav himself travelled to Noida to campaign for the polls.
With both potential chief ministers having visited Noida, the end of the Noida
jinx seems close at hand.

Uttar Pradesh goes to
polls in seven phases starting February 10. Results will be declared on March
10.