Poll position

Ministers are not always keen to brief the media after key Cabinet meetings but Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh showed that he has a realistic view of his position. Singh recently joined the ruling United Progressive Alliance as part of poll alliances ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and was inducted as civil aviation minister. Coming out of North Block after the meeting that discussed the issue of allowing foreign airlines to invest in Indian ones, he was caught between a noisy media demanding a comment and his staff and security officials exhorting him to get into a waiting car. It took him no time to decide that addressing the media was the better option. As he explained to his irate staff in Hindi, “How can I make them angry? The elections are round the corner.”