Will consider Chatterjee''s return if specific proposal: Karat

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) Three years after the expulsionof Marxist stalwart Somnath Chatterjee from CPI(M), the partyhas dropped a broad hint of considering his return if therewas a specific proposal.

"If specific proposals are received, we will give athought to it (the return of Chatterjee to the party)," CPI(M)General Secretary Prakash Karat said, but refused to elaboratewhen reporters questioned him on the sidelines of a seminar atDurgapur yesterday.

Chatterjee, who retired as Lok Sabha Speaker in 2009,declined to comment on the issue when questioned by reporters.

"I have no comment to make," Chatterjee told PTI hereover phone.

Stating that he was not keeping well, he said,"Whatever I had to say on it, I had already clarified to theparty in 2008 and now I have nothing more to say."

Chatterjee was expelled from CPI(M) after he refusedto resign from the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker prior to thevote of confidence moved by the UPA government in 2008 afterthe Left withdrew support to it.

He had said that he was above politics as the LokSabha Speaker.

It was said that the CPI(M)''s vital decision pilotedfor adoption by the central committee and the politburo onJuly 23, 2008 to expel Chatterjee, once the CPI(M) leader inthe Lok Sabha, was mostly at the insistence of Karat.

Chatterjee was charged with seriously compromising theposition of the party.

"His conduct seriously compromised the position of theparty," the CPI(M) had said in a statement while expelling himfrom the party.

The former Speaker has been lately seen sharing thedais on many occasions with West Bengal Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose andother party leaders.