Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passes away

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away on Monday morning in Kolkata at the age of 89.

According to reports, Chatterjee was admitted in a private hospital on August 10. Suffering a cardiac arrest, he breathed his last at 8.15 am, said Doctors.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran was suffering from kidney ailment and was put on ventilator support on Saturday. He suffered a haemorrhagic stroke in July.

Born on July 25, 1929, Chatterjee was a ten-time Lok Sabha MP. He served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.

Chatterjee, who is one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in India, joined CPI(M) in 1968 and remained its leader, until he was expelled from the party in 2018. He had refused to step down from his position in Parliament after CPI(M) withdrew its support from the United Progressive Alliance-led government over the India-US nuclear deal.

Chatterjee won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1996.