Speaker disqualifies expelled CPI-M MP

September 23rd, 2009 KOLKATA - Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Wednesday said that politics of confrontation should be avoided and that there were "some national issues which we need to achieve working together". Chatterjee was speaking at the inauguration of Ambuja Realty's 'Ecospace' Business Park here Wednesday.

September 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh Monday convened a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament, defying the party's call that he should quit as its chairman. None of the BJP MPs attended.

September 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh Monday convened a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament, defying the party's call to him to quit the post after his sacking. Singh Monday called a meeting of the 22-member committee, which scrutinises government spending.

September 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - As Jaswant Singh chaired the meeting of the Public Account Committee on Monday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in a tizzy, and Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has made a public appeal to the expelled leader to step down from the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee urging him 'to keep up to the parliamentary tradition', but Jaswant Singh has refused to budge. Six members of the BJP - NDA combine who are part of the Committee have boycotted today the PAC meet chaired by Jaswant Singh.

September 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - A day after the expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was told by his former party to quit the parliamentary post, a combative Jaswant Singh Tuesday said he would not quit as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Asked by reporters if he would oblige the BJP by quitting the PAC, Jaswant Singh said he would not.

May 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Saturday advised the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat to take responsibility of his party's no-show in the Lok Sabha elections, and resign. Chatterjee was expelled from the CPI(M) last year, when he refused to quit as the Lok Sabha speaker on the nuclear deal issue.

May 15th, 2009 KOLKATA - Lok Sabha Speaker and expelled Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Somnath Chatterjee Friday said that he had as yet not been approached by anyone from the party on the issue of his return to the CPI-M. 'No one, neither Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (West Bengal chief minister) nor Subhash Chakraborty, has spoken to me on the issue.

May 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - Questioning whether the Left parties were indeed getting stronger, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said Wednesday that their importance lay in the fact that 'no one is ignoring them'. 'Is the Left getting stronger?' Chatterjee asked while replying to questions related to the strength of Left parties in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

April 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Outgoing Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Wednesday said he would reply to Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) chief Prakash Karat 'at an apropriate time' for suggesting that personal interest had prompted him to support the Congress-led government during a trust motion last year. Chatterjee, who was expelled from the CPI-M last year and is not fighting the Lok Sabha elections this time, also denied Karat's allegation that his support was connected to his continuation as speaker.

April 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Lashing out at Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for his comment that withdrawal of support by the Left parties to the UPA government was a mistake, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat Monday said it revealed his 'pro-Congress stand'. The outgoing Lok Sabha speaker had in an interview to NDTV said he had cautioned the Left parties against withdrawing support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over the India-US nuclear deal last year.

March 14th, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - The Indian origin speaker of Malaysia's Perak state assembly, V. Sivakumar Friday won an appeal in court to appoint his own lawyer to fight suits filed by two parties, instead of being represented by the state legal adviser.

March 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - On a day of dramatic developments, West Bengal legislator Sudip Bandopadhyay, who had quit the Congress to join the Trinamool Congress, resigned his seat to protest the assembly speaker disqualifying another legislator, Somen Mitra, under the Anti-Defection Act. Mitra had left the Congress to float a new outfit, Pragatisheel Indira Congress, last year.

February 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A day after laying down office as Lok Sabha speaker, which also marked the conclusion of an almost four decade long political career, veteran leftist Somnath Chatterjee Friday asserted that communism was no political party's 'monopoly' - and that he would forever remain a 'comrade'. 'Communism is no party's monopoly.

February 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A day after he laid down office, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee Friday asserted that communism was no political party's 'monopoly' and said he continued to be a comrade. 'Communism is no party's monopoly.

January 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Monday disqualified Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MP P.P. Koya from the house for violating his party's whip.