Chatterjee's 79th birthday falls this Friday but a painful irony stares at his face after he was expelled by the CPI-M today punished for his defiance.

Related Articles Ponting says Ganguly''s retirement will "Gone fishing" Symonds back into Oz fold "Ponting's blunders on day-4 gave away B "Team India to target out-of-form Hayden 'Beijing just for experience, I target 2

Somnath Chatterjee expelled from CPI(M) primary membership
In a very in-evitable upsetting development, 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.

After being with the CPI-M for 40 years, it was not a birthday gift Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee would have exactly wished to get from the cadre-based party. Chatterjee's 79th birthday falls this Friday but a painful irony stares at his face after he was expelled by the CPI-M today punished for his defiance. Born on July 25, 1929 in Tezpur in Assam, the ten-time MP has always been somewhat of an outsider in the party.

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.

Post of Speaker not bound by any party membership
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.

Echoing a similar view, former Law Minister and senior advocate Shanti Bhushan said "The Lok Sabha and only the Lok Sabha and can get rid of the Speaker." On being asked as to whether defiant Chatterjee, who was today expelled by CPI(M) in the wake of his refusal to quit the post before the trust motion, should resign from the post on moral grounds, experts said the decision of the party has no bearing on him continuing as Speaker. "Not at all. The House had elected him. How come the decision of the party would bind a person holding a constitutional post?," said Bhushan. Describing the decision of CPI(M) to expel the veteran leader as "unfortunate", senior advocate P.N.Lekhi said once an MP is elected as a Speaker he ceases to the member of any party. "Generally speaking, it is very unfortunate and abuse of common sense. Whatever might be the constitution of a political party whenever a person becomes the Speaker he is no longer a member of that party," he said.

Pressures that Somnath withstood
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".

Somnath Chatterjee’s background
His was the stentorian voice that effectively projected the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) view in Parliament - and outside - for four decades. The often pugnacious and sometimes avuncular Chatterjee found himself ousted from the party he has been representing in the Lok Sabha, almost without a pause since 1971, a day after his commanding performance as its presiding officer. Chatterjee defied his party's diktat to continue in the Speaker's chair and preside over the two-day crucial trust vote that went against the CPM and was finally won by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The CPM's swift move to sack him from the party the day after the vote was perhaps no surprise for the man, who had taken on the wrath of the leadership when he decided to stay on as Speaker even after the Left parties had withdrawn support to the UPA.

Just as his many decades as MP stood out for their forceful articulation of the Left viewpoint, his four years as Speaker have been remarkable. He has cajoled, rebuked and ranted - with many a one-liner thrown in - while taking on the job of steering the 545-member House. Chatterjee may have often been criticized as a schoolmaster, but is acknowledged as one of India's more colorful and articulate speakers.

The son of Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, who was president of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a forerunner of the current day Bharatiya Janata Party, had signed up with the CPM relatively late in life -- when he was 39. There was little looking back after that for the graduate from the Kolkata, Cambridge and Glasgow universities. Since 1971, he has lost an election only once - in 1984 by Mamata Banerjee in Jadavpur, West Bengal. The 10-time MP then moved to Bolpur constituency in the state and never went back to Jadavpur. Bolpur too was being snatched away. The process of delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies implemented earlier this year made Bolpur into a reserved constituency. The Speaker, his colleagues in the CPM said, was not keen on contesting the next general elections scheduled in 2009.

Somnath Chatterjee’s reaction just before being expelled
"Let them do what they want," a defiant Chatterjee told reporters shortly before the CPM announced his expulsion - marking his metamorphosis to a "rebel". This "rebel", who gave up a promising career as a barrister, was not the homespun, grassroots comrade in the strict mould of a card holding member of the Communist party.