Somnath Chatterjee chairs all-party meet

New Delhi, July 21 : Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today chaired an all-party meeting ahead of the special session of the Lok Sabha to decide on the confidence motion.

The Speaker had called the meeting of the floor leaders of parties to discuss issues related to the trust vote being sought by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in the wake of the Left withdrawing support to the UPA on the nuclear deal issue.

The issue of resignation of Chatterjee from the post did not figure in the meeting of floor leaders. He was silent on mounting pressure from his CPI-M party to quit his post before the trust vote.

The CPI (M) on Sunday night had asked the Speaker to resign from office ahead of the confidence vote.

Chatterjee, who has repeatedly stated that the Speaker's office should not be dragged into political controversy, has not obliged the party leadership which has been pressing him to quit the high constitutional office.

The meeting was attended by Sharad Pawar (NCP), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), V K Malhotra (BJP), Basudev Acharya (CPI-M) and Ajit Singh (RLD).

ANI