Mulayam skips jinxed Noida

NOT IN NOIDA : UP Chief Minister visited Delhi but could not make it to Noida on Thursday.

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Lucknow: Politicians and bureaucrats have been lining up to meet the residents of Nithari village, where at least 15 children were raped and murdered by alleged serial killers, but UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is keeping a safe distance from the place.

Mulayam visited Delhi on Thursday but not Nithari, which is hardly 25 km away. Was it political compulsion, public outrage or just superstition?

The Samajwadi Party chief visited the UP Sadan in Delhi to meet acquaintances and the party itself held a small demonstration in the Capital to protest against the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Mulayam's reluctance to go to Nithari in Noida's Sector 31 has raised eyebrows.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh came to Mulayam's defence by saying, "The CM's younger brother and PWD minister has gone to Nithari," Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was rather curt:"By its own admission, Mulayam is guilty."

There are many politicians who believe that Noida is a political jinx. In fact, this could be one of the reasons why chief ministers of the state are reluctant to visit the place.

It all started in 1988, when the then Chief Minister Vir Bahadur Singh lost his job just days after a trip to Noida. The next year, ND Tiwari was voted out of power just days after an official visit to Noida.

Kalyan Singh tried to defy the odds, but he too was unsuccessful, losing power in 1999. Mulayam Singh and Mayawati too have met with similar fates in the past.

"If he does not go now, people will dislodge him," former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh said.

According to the records of the National Crime Bureau, more than 400 children are murdered every year in Uttar Pradesh and figure keeps increasing.

But in country's most populous state, it seems the chief ministers prefer to believe more in superstitions rather then face the stark realities such as Nithari killings.

(With Sumit Pande in New Delhi)