Akhilesh Yadav completes his yatra on the newly inaugurated expressway

Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP), completed his journey on the newly inaugurated 341-kilometer Purvanchal Expressway at 4.30 a.m. on Thursday as a "symbolic reiteration" that the project was initiated by his former government.

Around midnight, he tweeted pictures of his vehicle and supporters saying: "But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep..." Hours later, he tweeted again that night brings in a new dawn. "Now will be a new morning, there will be a change in 2022 (assembly polls)."

Around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the fourth leg of Yadav's Vijay Yatra began at the expressway's zero point in Ghazipur's Haiderya. It came to an end at 4 a.m. on Thursday in Lucknow's Chanda Sarai area. "I think this is one of the longest Yatras of Samajwadi (SP)... but in a real sense, I think the yatra has not ended...It will go on and stop when the SP government is back."

The yatra was supposed to end in Lucknow on Wednesday evening. "But due to many unscheduled halts because of the crowds of supporters along the way, the yatra went on all night," said SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary.

Yadav began his highway yatra the morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially opened it at an Indian Air Force emergency airport in Sultanpur on Tuesday. SP workers held a "symbolic inauguration" of the road, dubbed Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway, on Tuesday.

The expressway, according to Yadav, was a project of his previous SP government, which the BJP has usurped.

On Tuesday, the fourth stage of the Vijay Yatra was supposed to start from Ghazipur and end in Azamgarh. However, the Ghazipur district administration refused permission, citing Modi's event as a security concern.