M A I N   N E W S

Ajit in Cabinet, gets Agriculture
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22
A day ahead of Monsoon session of Parliament, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh was today inducted into the Vajpayee Cabinet with an eye on the forthcoming assembly poll in UP.

Mr Ajit Singh (L) is greeted by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee after his swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi, on Sunday. — Reuters photo

President K.R. Narayanan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr Ajit Singh at a brief function at Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening.

Despite opposition from Haryana Chief Minister and INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, Mr Ajit Singh has been given the Agriculture portfolio. He takes charge from Nitish Kumar, who also holds the Railway portfolio.

Clad in a white kurta and pyjama, the 62-year-old RLD leader took the oath in Hindi.

Vice President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Home Minister, L K Advani, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh were among those present.

It is only the second time that a lone member has been inducted into the Union Cabinet. M.L. Fotedar was sworn-in Cabinet Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet in 1987.

Even though there are several vacancies in the Cabinet following the resignation of ministers in the wake of the Tehelka expose and re-alignment of political equations before the Assembly poll, the Prime Minister chose not to induct more members due to political compulsions.

Immediately after being sworn in, Mr Ajit Singh went towards the UP Chief Minister, who had been specially asked to be present at the function, to accept the greetings.

The move to induct Mr Ajit Singh, whose party has two MPs in the Lok Sabha, comes amidst BJP’s plans to tie up with the RLD for the Assembly poll in UP slated for early next year.

Mr Ajit Singh’s entry into the Cabinet comes despite the opposition expressed by Mr Chautala, whose party INLD has been extending unconditional support to the NDA government.

While Mr Ajit Singh, who has his support base in western UP, has been campaigning for the creation of a “harit pradesh”, the Haryana Chief Minister has been touring western UP and taking up the cause of farmers and has been voicing the demand for the creation of separate “kisan pradesh” for the region. Mr Chautala had even threatened to walk out of the NDA, if Mr Ajit Singh was inducted into the Cabinet.

Sources said the Haryana Chief Minister met the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and has urged him not induct the RLD in the NDA alliance as it would create an imbalance in the relations between the INLD and the BJP.

Mr Ajit Singh, son of the late Chaudhary Charan Singh, represents the Baghpat constituency in western UP. He had been minister at the Centre twice in the past. He has re-entered the Cabinet after a gap of over five years.

He first entered Parliament as a Rajya Sabha member in 1986 and is a fourth time member of the Lok Sabha. From December 1989 to November 1990, he was Union Industry Minister in the National Front government and was Food Minister in the Narasimha Rao government from 1995-96.

During the Rao government, he got embroiled in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery scandal, but was exonerated by the Special CBI Judge Ajit Bharihoke. Mr Vajpayee has to fill several gaps in his Union Council of Ministers following resignations of some ministers and re-alignment of forces in Tamil Nadu and the Trinamool Congress had also quit the NDA before the Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Omar Abdullah has been shifted to External Affairs and Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh will now look after Commerce and Industry.

Minister of State for External Affairs U. Krishnamraju will now be the MoS for Defence, it said.

NEWS ANALYSIS
BJP pins hopes on Ajit Singh
T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22
Bowing to growing pressure from the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee inducted Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh in his cabinet here this evening. BJP strategists including UP Chief Minister Rajnath Singh feel Mr Ajit Singh’s influence among the Jats in the western part of the country’s most populous state can shore up the saffron brigade’s chances in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Mr Vajpayee has had to put on a delicate balancing act in offering a ministerial berth to Ajit Singh because of intense resistance from Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. The Prime Minister had called Mr Chautala yesterday to take him into confidence and soothe ruffled feathers.

Mr Chautala, who is the supremo of the Indian National Lok Dal, did not want Mr Ajit Singh’s RLD to be a part of the BJP-led NDA. He was also insistent that Mr Ajit Singh should not be given the agriculture portfolio and that the BJP should restrict its ties with the RLD to working out electoral arrangements in UP.

The intense rivalry between Mr Chautala and Mr Ajit Singh is no secret as both of them are trying to leave their imprint in the Jat stronghold of western UP. The two leaders have kept up a cacophony that a substantial portion of western UP should be carved out into a separate state which Mr Chautala calls “Kisan Pradesh” and Mr Ajit Singh as “Harith Pradesh.”

Mr Vajpayee’s compulsions are all too evident in providing the necessary platform to Mr Ajit Singh to be an ally of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh as a counter to former Union Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party’s duo of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati.

There are others waiting in the wings anxiously to catch Mr Vajpapyee eye for being part of the government bandwagon like Mr Ajit Panja, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the regional PMK in Tamil Nadu. Dr Ramdoss as the numero uno of the PMK has parted ways with AIADMK’s J. Jayalalitha and appears keen to return to the NDA fold at the Centre. He had envisioned hopes of his nominees being inducted in Vajpayee’s Council of Ministers this evening. That did not happen.

Authoritative sources said Mr Vajpayee has restricted his Cabinet expansion to a lone individual with an eye on the Assembly elections in UP. Further inductions to fill the gaps in the Vajpayee government will be undertaken probably before the winter session of Parliament after the Commission of Inquiry probing the Tehelka expose of corruption in defence deals submits its report to the government.

The Prime Minister is more than eager to bring back NDA convener George Fernandes into the government. Mr Fernandes resigned as Union Defence Minister in the wake of the Tehelka controversy. That is why Mr Vajpayee did not want to create complications for himself at this juncture by inducting more people in his jumbo Council of Ministers.

The BJP realises that it is on an extremely weak wicket in UP with the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party wielding considerable influence among the minorities, backward classes and other underprivileged sections in the state. The BJP’s stranglehold on the upper castes is also on the wane and inimical forces like Kalyan Singh are out to wreck the party’s ambitions in UP.

With multi-cornered contests being the order of the day in Uttar Pradesh, BJP strategists are of the opinion that if their party works in tandem with Mr Ajit Singh’s RLD it might be able to retrieve some ground in western UP which accounts for nearly one third of the 400 seats to the Vidhan Sabha.