By IANS,
Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Sunday said he had rushed to Jyoti Basu for advice during the July 22, 2008, parliament trust vote when the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) had asked him to step down. Basu told him to go ahead and preside over the trust vote that the ruling UPA eventually won, Chatterjee said.
“I rushed to him for advice when the party asked me to resign as speaker,” Chatterjee told Bengali television news channel, Star Ananda.
“He told me what the party had said was wrong. He said the party cannot dictate a (Lok Sabha) speaker what he should do. ‘You must preside over the trust vote and then decide’, Jyoti Babu had told me,” Chatterjee told the channel.
“I did what I did as per his directive. After talking to him I decided I will not resign,” he said.
The Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had to opt for the trust vote after the CPI-M withdrew outside support in protest against the India-US civil nuclear deal. Chatterjee was expelled from the party for presiding over the trust vote by defying the party line.
Chatterjee recalled that Basu used to jokingly call him “expelled member” whenever the two met since then.
Jyoti Basu died Sunday at a Kolkata hospital after prolonged illness, aged 95.