AJITH SINGH SWORN IN AS CABINET MINISTER

AJITH SINGH SWORN IN AS CABINET MINISTER

RLD chief Ajit Singh was inducted as a Union Cabinet Minister on Sunday,18^th December,2011, in a minor expansion of the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and many ministers were in attendance at the ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan. The swearing-in of the 72-year-old Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh took place a week after his party formally joined the UPA, the first political outfit to do so since the alliance came to power for the second time in May 2009.

Ajit Singh would become the 33rd minister in the Union Cabinet and 77th in the council of ministers. There was talk sometime back that Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi, who merged his Prajya Rajyam Party with the Congress earlier this year, may be made a union minister. But it was unclear whether he would be part of the expansion being undertaken in the midst of the Winter Session of Parliament. The merger of Praja Rajyam Party had helped the Congress to shake off the opposition challenge in the Andhra Pradesh assembly in the form of a no confidence motion recently. Ajit Singh, whose RLD has five members in the Lok Sabha, had a meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday. With RLD joining the ruling coalition, UPA's strength in the Lok Sabha has gone up from 272 to 277. 

                                                                              Prof. John Kurakar