RLD chief sworn in as aviation minister

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Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh was sworn in as a Cabinet minister on Sunday and was later given the civil aviation portfolio. The minor expansion of the Union Cabinet was third such exercise after the UPA-2 came into power in 2009.
The induction of the 72-year-old Jat leader into the Union Cabinet came a week after he formally joined the UPA, a move which is likely to give a boost to the Congress-RLD alliance in western Uttar Pradesh ahead of next year’s Assembly polls. With the RLD in the ruling alliance, the strength of the UPA has now gone up to 277 from the earlier 272. The civil aviation ministry was being looked after by the overseas affairs minister Vayalar Ravi.
Vice-president Hamid Ansari, Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and a number of Union ministers and party leaders attended the swearing-in ceremony when President Pratibha Patil administered the oath of office to Mr Singh at a brief ceremony in the Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is said to be the main architect of the Congress-RLD tie up, also attended the swearing-in ceremony and was seen sitting along with the son of RLD chief and MP from Mathura Jayant Chaudhary.
Later, Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement that Mr Singh was allocated the civil aviation ministry on the advise of the Prime Minister. Mr Singh is now the 33rd Cabinet minister and 77th in the overall Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The RLD chief later told reporters that the alliance with the Congress has now provided a clear-cut alternative to the people of UP. “The wave generated in UP due to the Congress-RLD alliance will be felt across the country,” asserted Mr Singh.
The RLD chief has become a minister in the Union Cabinet for the fourth time now, as he was a member of the P.V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government also, when he had held the food and public distribution portfolio. He had become a minister for the first time in the V.P. Singh Cabinet when he had held the industry portfolio from 1989 to 1990. Mr Singh was agriculture minister in the BJP-led NDA government from 2001-03.