Ajit Singh sworn in as Civil Aviation Minister

As a follow-up to the Congress-RLD deal to forge an alliance, Singh was on Sunday sworn in as the new civil aviation minister.

“Our mind now is on Uttar Pradesh. The people of Uttar Pradesh have so far been suffering under the oppressive regime of Mayawati, but they had no alternative. People have now got a clear-cut alternative in the Congress-RLD combine,” Singh told journalists soon after being administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were present during the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Ajit Singh, the son of the late  former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, is an alumnus of the IIT-Kharagpur and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

The 72-year-old is now in his sixth term as an MP in the Lok Sabha and represents family bastion Baghpat. The RLD has five MPs in the Lok Sabha and its induction is likely to raise the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s strength in the 545-member Lok Sabha from 272 to 277.

Ajit Singh told journalists that the wave to be generated in UP during the next assembly polls would help the UPA across the country during the 2014 parliamentary elections.
The RLD is likely to contest in about 45 seats in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly. The party now has only 10 MLAs in the present Assembly.

The Congress had won only 22 seats in the last Uttar Pradesh polls in 2007. The Congress-RLD alliance is hopeful of playing “king makers” in case of a hung Assembly.