Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away in a private-run hospital here on Monday morning. He was 89.
Yesterday, Chatterjee suffered a mild heart attack. He had been on ventilation for the last five days after he was admitted to Belle Vue hospital on August 8 due to kidney related complications.
The 10-time parliamentarian had been in and out of hospital for the last two months.
The veteran politician was the Speaker in the first five-year term (2004-2009) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA-1 ) government and was elected to Lok Sabha for ten times since from 1971 to 2009, except in the 1984 election when he was defeated by Mamata Banerjee, present Chief Minister of West Bengal, from Jadavpur constituency.
Chatterjee joined the CPI (M) in 1968 and remained its member till 2008 when he was expelled by the CPI (M) politburo for refusing to resign as speaker of the Lok Sabha after the Communist party withdrew support from UPA-1 government over the Undo-US nuclear deal.
President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several political leaders have condoled the death of Chatterjee.
Kalinga AI