CPM expels Somnath Chatterjee

New Delhi, July 23: The CPI(M) on Wednesday expelled veteran leader Somnath Chatterjee from the party, following his decision to continue as Lok Sabha Speaker and preside over the July 22nd trust vote in Parliament.

The decision to expel Somnath was taken by the CPM politburo at a meeting in New Delhi, which was held a day after the Left parties, along with other opposition parties, failed to bring down the UPA government in the trust vote.

Explaining its decision, the CPM said the politburo decided to expel Somnath from the party based on his anti-party conduct over the past few days.

Somnath has been expelled from the CPM for "seriously compromising the position of the party", the party's politburo said.

The decision has been taken following Somnath’s defiance by not quitting the post of Lok Sabha Speaker after the Left parties' withdrawal of their support to the UPA government, it added.

The politburo said the action was being taken under Clause 13 of Article 19 of the CPI(M) constitution which empowers the party committees the right to resort to summary procedures for expulsion of a member for anti-party activities.

A party spokesman said that the Speaker had said he would step down after the July 22 trust vote. The party waited for him to do so, but he continued to remain defiant, the spokesperson said further, adding he will have to abide by party constitution.

Sources said the decision to expel Somnath was taken unanimously by the CPM politburo.

Somnath has been a member of the CPM for nearly four decades. He was named the Best Parliamentarian in 1996.

Legally, Somnath can continue as Lok Sabha Speaker as per the 10th Schedule of the Constitution despite being expelled from his party. He can only be removed by a notice initiated by 100 members of the Lok Sabha and then it has to be ratified by two-thirds majority present and voting.

Somnath Chatterjee made it clear this morning that he would not step down from the constitutional post as of now.

Somnath reportedly told West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose over telephone that he wanted to continue as the Speaker and if he is pushed too hard to quit the post, then he will even resign from party itself.

The remarks came in response to the attack by Bose, who had said yesterday, “What is the justifiability of his (Somnath) continuing in office after withdrawal of support to the UPA government?”

Somnath on his part was very angry that the party included his name in the list of Left MPs, who had withdrawn support to the UPA government. His contention was that as long as he is the Speaker, he should be kept above party politics.

Following the row, the CPM left his name out of the list of MPs that had been issued in the party whip. Somnath had his way by presiding over the trust vote as the Speaker and therefore omitting himself from voting during floor test. Moreover, Chatterjee was not willing to go along with the Left’s idea of voting with the BJP to pull down the government as it is Left’s long held view that it wants to keep communal forces at bay.

He had yesterday told media persons that CPM cannot give him a notice because he is not a politburo member.

Reactions

CPM

Senior CPM politburo member M K Pandhe said that the party was unhappy with Somnath’s decision to chair the trust vote.

However big leader he might be, Somnath can’t defy the party, Pandhe said referring to the party diktat asking him to step down as Lok Sabha Speaker.

He added that the development will not affect the morale of his party.

Congress

Commenting on the expulsion Congress party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said that the move was unprecedented. She said that Somnath was not the CPM speaker but the Lok Sabha speaker and should continue in his post.

On being informed that the CPM has cited his conduct during the trust vote as one of the reasons for the expulsion, she said that he had done nothing inappropriate.

“He is a very fair and upright Speaker,” she said. But she refused to comment further saying that it was an internal matter of the CPM.

Soli Sorabjee

Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said he was “shocked and saddened” at the CPM decision