Somnath is Speaker or CPI(M) MP: President wanted to know

New Delhi, Jul 17 (UNI) It was not merely the political parties on both sides of the nuclear divide that were wondering about the status of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee after the Left submitted to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil its list of MPs who have withdrawn their support to the Manmohan Singh government.

Ms Patil was also equally intrigued over the development that she sought a clarification from the office of the Lok Sabha Secretary General whether Mr Chatterjee was still the Speaker, official sources said today.

Upon this, the Speaker's office itself took the initiative of sending the clarification to Rashtrapati Bhavan, stating that he still continued to occupy the Constitutional post, the sources said.

Mr Chatterjee himself hinted at this development, forcing CPI(M) politbureau member Sitaram Yechury to go on record, stating that the party had probably put an asterix mark against the Speaker's name on the list of MPs submitted to the President.

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