Expulsion pained father, says Somnath’s daughter

Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who passed away this morning, had never said anything against the CPI(M), although he was “pained” after the Left party expelled him, his daughter said.

“We could see his agony and pain (after expulsion from the CPI-M). He loved the party throughout his life,” Anushila said, adding that she had tried to make Chatterjee speak against the party, but her father never did it.Mr Chatterjee was expelled from the CPI(M) in 2008 for refusing to resign as the Speaker after his party withdrew support to the UPA-I government over the India-US nuclear deal.

“We don't want any courtesy from them (CPIM). They have shown enough courtesy,” she told a news channel here. Anushila, however, said many in the party kept contact with her father and some of them also came on his death.

The CPI(M) leaders, she said, proposed to place the party flag on Chatterjee’s body. “(But) we did not agree, though my father might have been happy.”

Some of the West Bengal CPI(M) leaders faced the wrath of Chatterjee’s son, Pratap, who said, “You used my father, now you have come to show sympathy. Stop this drama.”

When asked about it, CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakraborty said, “It is better not to discuss it in this day of grief.”