New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader, Somnath Chatterjee, has been expelled from his party.
The CPI-M expelled Chatterjee on Wednesday from the primary membership of the party - a post that he has been in for almost half a century - for violating party discipline after a Politburo meeting held at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
The meeting was attended by party General Secretary Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, MK Pandhe, SR Pillai and Brinda Karat.
A CPI-M press release said, "The Politburo of the Communist Party of India-Marxist has unanimously decided to expel Somnath Chatterjee from the membership of the party with immediate effect. This action has been taken under Article XIX, clause 13 of the Party Constitution for seriously compromising the position of the party."
Secretary of the West Bengal State Committee and Politburo member Biman Bose justified Somnath's expulsion.
"He may abide by the country's Constitution but the party has its own Constitution with which he has to abide. We waited till today because he had committed before the party that he would resign first thing after the trust vote," Bose said.
However, former Attorney General and noted jurist, Soli Sorabjee clarified that despite the expulsion, Chatterjee still remained the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
"The Speaker was elected by the House, he was not elected as a nominee of any particular political party. His expulsion from the party has nothing to do with his continuation as the Speaker. He can be removed only if he wants to resign himself or has to be voted out," Sorabjee said.
Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan says Somnath Chatterjee did the right thing in continuing as the speaker.
"Speaker doesn't have any party affiliation. He was an exceptionally good Speaker," she said.
Chatterjee had been under intense pressure from the CPI-M to resign as the Lok Sabha Speaker after the party withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and even listed him as among the party Members of Parliament (MPs) when it submitted a withdrawal letter to President Pratibha Patil.
The CPI-M wanted him to toe the party line, but he insisted on remaining in the post of the Speaker, maintaining that he was above party politics.
CPI-M General Secretary, Prakash Karat had earlier said that the Politburo had been directed by the party's Central Committee to decide on what would be the appropriate action against the Speaker.
Lately, there had been reports that Chatterjee planned to resign after conducting the confidence motion. However, on Tuesday evening Chatterjee kept on the suspense over whether he would quit or not by saying that he would "decide when the time comes".
Comments
0 comment