Rebel Trinamool MLA rejoins cabinet

Trinamool Congress today got a shot in the arm ahead of panchayat elections when its Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya rejoined the cabinet as a minister for statistics and programme implementation, which he had spurned after his agriculture portfolio was taken away.
The MLA, a retired headmaster, who played a pivotal role in the anti-land acquisition movement at Singur that ultimately saw the Tatas exit from their Nano car project, had refused to take up his new assignment allotted to him in a cabinet reshuffle in November last year.
Bhattacharya had felt insulted after he was shifted out of his previous agriculture department and chose to stay away from the cabinet without formally resigning.

He had even stayed away from the administrative meeting the Chief Minister had held at Singur on November 30 last.
Bhattacharya, often referred to as "Mastermoshai" among his circles, came to the Writers' Buildings after a gap of five months and attended the cabinet meeting presided over by the Chief Minister.
Before coming to the secretariat, he went to the New Secretariat Building where his ministry office was located and talked to his department officials.

Asked what led him to shed his stand, especially after threatening to resign and quit politics over portfolio change and following his allegation that TMC members were engaged in extortion, he said, "Life is full of change and it is similar in politics also. That is why my change of stance".

"I changed myself in a changed situation", he said.
Asked why he chose this time to rejoin the cabinet when the government was facing the heat over the collapse of a chit fund company that has hit lakhs of investors, he said, "We can fight against everything by remaining in the ministry.