Ajit Singh to be sworn in on Sunday

NEW DELHI: RLD chief Ajit Singh will be sworn into the Union Cabinet on Sunday in a minor expansion of the council of ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The swearing-in of the 72-year-old Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh is taking 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.There is speculation that Singh may get the civil aviation portfolio.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone else would be sworn in along with Ajit Singh, who will become the 33rd minister in the Union Cabinet and the 77th in the council of ministers.
Singh, whose RLD has five members in Lok Sabha, had a meeting with the PM on Monday. With RLD joining the ruling coalition, UPA's strength in Lok Sabha has gone up from 272 to 277.
Singh has been a member of the Congress government in the past when Narasimha Rao was prime minister. He held the food portfolio then. He was industry minister in the V P Singh government (1989-90) and agriculture minister in the BJP-led NDA regime from 2001-03.