Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away on Monday morning after suffering a mild heart attack. He was 89.
Mr. Chatterjee has been on ventilator support for the last five days after he was admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday due to kidney related complications. He suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in June and was hospitalised for more than a month.
Mr. Chatterjee was the Speaker in the first five-year term (2004-2009) of the United Progressive Alliance government and was elected to the Parliament's Lower House ten times since 1971.
He was expelled from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in July 2008 for refusing to resign as Speaker after CPI-M withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.