A defiant Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was yesterday expelled by CPI (M) in the wake of his refusal to quit the post in line with the directive of the party with which he was associated for four decades.
"The Poliburo of the CPI (M) has unanimously decided to expel Somnath Chatterjee from the membership of the party with immediate effect," a Politburo statement said after its meeting chaired by General Secretary Prakash Karat, that discussed his defiance ever since the party withdrew support to the UPA government.
The party invoked Article 19 (13) of its constitution to expel him under summary procedures without any notice on the charge of "seriously compromising" the party position.
The 79-year old barrister and 10-time MP, Chatterjee rejected both subtle and explicit hints from the party leadership, which asked him to quit the post to which he was elected unanimously after the 2004 elections, saying he was above party politics given the post he held.
In the last fortnight he had been maintaining that he would take an appropriate decision, but it became increasingly clear that he was not going to oblige the party diktat. Even yesterday he maintained he may be going to Kuala Lumpur for a Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference early next month.
The party hoped that Chatterjee, who was leader of its Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha for some time, would quit before the confidence vote on Monday, but he went ahead and presided over the proceedings of the two-day Special Session that ended on Tuesday.
Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/jul/240708chaterjee.htm
