The Hindu : Front Page : Ajit Singh, key player

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Sunday, Jul 20, 2008
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Ajit Singh, key player

Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: With only three MPs, all from Uttar Pradesh, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal president has emerged as one of the key players in the July 22 trust vote in Parliament. The Congress, which claims to have secured his support, is waiting for the final nod.

Lucknow’s Amausi airport has just been named after his father, the former Prime Minister Charan Singh. However, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh on Friday underplayed the United Progressive Alliance government’s decision, saying the proposal sent by the Uttar Pradesh government to rename the airport had been pending for long. Mr. Ajit Singh and the RLD have welcomed the decision, but party leaders here are demanding that the Bharat Ratna be also conferred on Charan Singh.

As for creation of a separate State, Harit Pradesh, by carving out seven districts of western U.P., which RLD leaders say has remained the party’s pet agenda, the Congress has so far not approved the proposal. Nor does its current ally, the Samajwadi Party, favour the creation of another State.

When SP president Mulayam Singh was Chief Minister and Mr. Ajit Singh his coalition partner, the Harit Pradesh issue remained under wraps although it later became one of the factors in the RLD president’s decision to pull out of the coalition in December 2006.

However, the Harit Pradesh demand has found support in Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party president, Mayawati. She is on record on trifurcation of the State into Purvanchal (eastern U.P.), Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh. Mr. Ajit Singh also favoured the trifurcation in a bid to lend legitimacy to his demand for the creation of Harit Pradesh, which essentially incorporates the Jat-Muslim and sugarcane dominated region of western U.P.

All three RLD MPs have been elected from this region — Anuradha Chaudhary from Kairana in Muzaffarnagardistrict, Ajit Singh from Baghpat and Munshi Ram from Bijnor.

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