I will never return to CPI-M: Somnath

Kolkata, Nov 10: Expelled from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for his refusal to heed the party diktat during the July 22 trust motion, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Sunday said he did not harbour any thought of returning to his parent party 'at this advanced age'.

"At this advanced age, I don't think any more on this," Chatterjee said when asked whether he expected to return to the CPI-M fold. "It hurts. It deeply hurts," the veteran parliamentarian said when asked how he felt when Lok Sabha members of his own party called him partial in running the house.

In an interview to a Bengali news channel, Chatterjee said - "There is no scope for the Lok Sabha speaker to be partisan when his job is not only to do justice but also to ensure that justice is seen to be done."

He stood by his decision not to resign from his post during the trust vote.

"I don't know whether I did right or wrong. But most people have supported my stand," Chatterjee added.

UNI