Click to play videoKolkata: He may have been expelled from the party he served for four decades but Speaker Somnath Chatterjee definitely is not a lonely man.
Chatterjee's Akbar Road residence in the Capital saw a stream of high profile visitors including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday morning to stand by him after the Left showed him the door. A chorus of support for the Speaker also came in from other UPA allies.
CPM, however, has justified the expulsion but said it wasn’t a happy decision. The party claims it was left with no option, given Chattrejee's defiance of the party line.
CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat said, “Whether he should continue as Speaker or not is upto him. But whether he should continue as a party member or not is a decision that we (CPM) will take. You cannot run Parliament with a Speaker belonging to the Opposition party.”
But the decision, which the party termed a unanimous one, didn’t stop West Bengal Sports Minister Subhash Chakarborty, who had earlier publicly supported Chatterjee, from speaking his mind again.
“I am heartbroken. He was an exceptional comrade,” Chakaraborty said.
It isn't just Chakraborty who has shown support to the Speaker. CPM MP Tarit Topdar also told CNN-IBN that losing a member of Chatterjee's stature is undoubtedly a huge loss to the party.
However, CPM's track record in tolerating dissenters has not been the best. Former MP Saifuddin Choudhury, who came into the limelight by demanding greater democratic functioning and transparency in party affairs, was expelled. Gauri Amma, a veteran woman leader was shown the door and so was MV Raghavan, another upcoming bright prospect for the party.
In CPM bastion Alimuddin Street in Kolkata there is a definite unease over the decision to expel a veteran leader. Chatterjee may not have been a very influential leader, but there are other dissenters within the party who may take the cue from him.
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