12 Feb : Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has ruled out any possibility of contesting the coming general elections, saying it was time for him to retire from active politics even as a fan sent him a demand draft and urged him to reconsider his decision.
"No", was Chatterjee’s cryptic response to a reporter’s query on whether he would contest the Lok Sabha elections.When asked what he would do after his tenure ends, the 79-year-old parliamentarian remarked "sanyas, sanyas".
Chatterjee was expelled from CPI-M last year as he refused to quit the Speaker’s post despite a directive from the party which asked him to demit office after withdrawing support to the UPA on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
He had contended that he has been elected by all parties. At the same time, he had then declared that he would not contest elections in future.