No going back to CPM, says Somnath

NEW DELHI: Stripped of his party membership, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday said he would retire to a small corner of his state ���far from the madding (sic) crowd��� after his term ends. The former CPM leader said he was not making any effort to rejoin the party.

���I don���t believe in going to Vrindavan, I will go to a small corner of my state, far from the madding crowd and lead a retired life,��� Mr Chatterjee was quoted by a news agency as saying in Kuala Lumpur where he is heading an Indian parliamentary delegation to the 54th Commonwealth Parliament Association meeting.

This is the first time that Mr Chatterjee has spoken about his plans post-Speakership. Just before leaving for Kuala Lumpur he had issued a statement criticising the party for directing him in his duties in the constitutional post, and refuting the argument that he should have quit ahead of the trust vote.

Reiterating that July 23, the day the CPM expelled him from the party, was the saddest day of his life, Mr Chatterjee said he was proud to be a party member. ���There is no initiative on my part to rejoin,��� he said. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, while defending the party���s decision to expel him, had said that Mr Chatterjee could make an appeal. Asked if he would go back if the party approached him, Mr Chatterjee said ���there is too big an if���.

Mr Chatterjee, whose term will end early next year, said there was an ���overwhelming��� and unprecedented��� public response when the party expelled him. ���They appreciated that I took a principled stand,��� he said.