Former Speaker and veteran communist politician Somnath Chatterjee breathed his last at a south Kolkata hospital on Monday morning. He was 89.
Chatterjee was having health issues for quite some time now and had last been admitted following a kidney related ailment, sources said. He was one of the longest serving Parliamentarians in India’s history and was Speaker in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
He joined CPI(M) in 1968. It was during his tenure as Speaker that the CPI(M) decided to withdraw support from the then Congress-led UPA over the nuclear deal issue. Chatterjee was asked to step down as Speaker and vote in favour of the “no confidence motion” then which he refused. Following this, Chatterjee was expelled from the CPI-M in 2008.