Ajit Singh's induction will help NDA in U.P. elections

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 22. For the third time in his political career, Mr. Ajit Singh, chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, today became a member of the Union Cabinet. He was inducted at a brief ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening where the President, Mr. K.R. Narayanan, administered the oath of office and secrecy.

Later, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique stated that Mr. Ajit Singh has been given the Agriculture portfolio. This was held by Mr. Nitish Kumar who had been given additional charge of the Ministry of Railways after Ms. Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress parted company and tied with the Congress ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. Mr. Kumar will now retain charge of the Ministry of Railways.

The induction of Mr. Singh has also been used by the Prime Minister to make a few more changes - Mr. Omar Abdullah will now takeover as Minister of State for External Affairs, which had earlier been handled by Mr. Ajit Panja, also of the Trinamool Congress. Mr. Digvijay Singh has moved to Mr. Abdullah's place as Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, vacating a similar post in the Railway Ministry. Mr. U.V. Krishnamraju has been moved from the Ministry of External Affairs to Defence as Minister of State.

Mr. Singh has been waiting for this moment for some time as it was his condition for joining an expanded Bharatiya Janata Party- led coalition to fight the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls scheduled anytime between September this year and March next. Both the RLD and the BJP view the alliance, which is now expected to be formalised, as mutually beneficial in western Uttar Pradesh where Mr. Singh has a base among the `Jats'.

Mr. Singh's inclusion in the ruling National Democratic Alliance coalition a day before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament will increase the NDA numbers in the Lok Sabha by two, a small correction of the arithmetic that was threatening to go wrong after the Trinamul Congress and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) walked out. In fact, the Trinamul is itself threatened by a split, and the rebel leader, Mr. Ajit Panja, is also looking for ways to get back into the Union Council of Ministers. A similar drama has also been enacted by the PMK which had left the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu to join the AIADMK front but has now parted company with it. The party leader, Dr. S. Ramdoss, is also waiting to make his re-entry into the NDA.

Mr. Ajit Singh's entry into the Cabinet today is the first step taken by the BJP to get its act together for the Uttar Pradesh elections. Although the BJP has differences with Mr. Ajit Singh on his demand for yet another partition of Uttar Pradesh to carve out a `Harit Pradesh,' with its own support base dwindling, it has no option but to try and gather under its wing other smaller parties with some following. Its strategy is a simple arithmetic exercise of adding one and one to make two. The induction has taken place despite the public protests by another `Jat' leader and NDA ally, Mr. Om Prakash Chautala, Haryana Chief Minister and INLD leader.

Mr. Singh was part of the Narasimha Rao Council of Ministers and before that he was a Minister in the V.P. Singh Government.

`We will sweep polls'

UNI reports:

Mr. Ajit Singh today said his entry into the NDA would boost the prospects of the BJP-led coalition in the coming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. ``We will sweep the Assembly elections in western Uttar Pradesh,'' Mr. Singh said after the swearing-in. ``The actual contest in this part of the State will be between the NDA and the Bahujan Samaj Party,'' he added.

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