ID :
13657
Thu, 07/24/2008 - 10:52
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http://m.oananews.org//node/13657
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Somnath Chatterjee expelled from CPI(M)
New Delhi, July 24 (PTI) A defiant Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was Wednesday expelled by CPI(M) in the wake of his refusal to quit the post in line with the directive of the party with which he was associated for fourdecades.
"The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) has unanimouisly decided to expel Somnath Chatterjee from the membership of the party with immediate effect," a Polit Bureau statement said after its meeting chaired by General Secretary Prakash Karat, that discussed his defiance ever since the partywithdrew support to the U.P.A. government.
The party invoked Article 19 (13) of its constitution to expel him under summary procedures without any notice onthe charge of "seriously compromising" the party position.
The 79-year old barrister and ten-time MP, Chatterjee rejected both subtle and explicit hints from the party leadership, which asked him to quit the post to which he was elected unanimously after the 2004 elections, saying he wasabove party politics given the post he held.
In the last fortnight he had been maintaining that he would take an appropriate decision, but it became increasingly clear that he was not going to oblige the party diktat. Even today he maintained he may be going to Kuala Lumpur for aCommonwealth Parliamentary Conference early next month.
The party hoped that Chatterjee, who was leader of its Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha for some time, would quit before the confidence vote Monday, but he went ahead and presided over the proceedings of the two-day Special Sessionthat ended Tuesday.
After persuasion by CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu and others failed, the party is understood to have deputed one of its senior leaders Biman Bose to tell him that he give up the post in the light of the changed situation. (MORE) PTI ARC SHN
"The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) has unanimouisly decided to expel Somnath Chatterjee from the membership of the party with immediate effect," a Polit Bureau statement said after its meeting chaired by General Secretary Prakash Karat, that discussed his defiance ever since the partywithdrew support to the U.P.A. government.
The party invoked Article 19 (13) of its constitution to expel him under summary procedures without any notice onthe charge of "seriously compromising" the party position.
The 79-year old barrister and ten-time MP, Chatterjee rejected both subtle and explicit hints from the party leadership, which asked him to quit the post to which he was elected unanimously after the 2004 elections, saying he wasabove party politics given the post he held.
In the last fortnight he had been maintaining that he would take an appropriate decision, but it became increasingly clear that he was not going to oblige the party diktat. Even today he maintained he may be going to Kuala Lumpur for aCommonwealth Parliamentary Conference early next month.
The party hoped that Chatterjee, who was leader of its Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha for some time, would quit before the confidence vote Monday, but he went ahead and presided over the proceedings of the two-day Special Sessionthat ended Tuesday.
After persuasion by CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu and others failed, the party is understood to have deputed one of its senior leaders Biman Bose to tell him that he give up the post in the light of the changed situation. (MORE) PTI ARC SHN
