Somnath may quit CPM after trust vote on July 22

LISTEN TO THE SPEAKER: Somnath may not preside over the trust vote only if Jyoti Basu persuades him.

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New Delhi: Within a week from now, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee may no longer be with the CPI-M, his party.

Sources close to Chatterjee tell CNN-IBN he would ideally want to preside over the trust vote on July 21 and July 22.

Sources say Chatterjee has made clear he’d listen to none in his party but his mentor Jyoti Basu. He may not preside over the trust vote only if Basu is able to persuade him.

He has now told his friends that by next week he'll give up Speakership, his MP seat and also his membership of the party.

Somnath Chatterjee is opposed to the Left plan to vote with the BJP, against the UPA. He had said as much in a letter sent to party general secretary Prakash Karat recently.

On Tuesday, Chatterjee reportedly wrote to CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat telling him he can't go along with the BJP on the vote of confidence against the UPA Government.

Chatterjee also defied Karat and made clear he won’t give up the Speaker's chair without a fight.

In the letter sent to Karat, he has politely explained that he doesn't want to cling on to the Speaker's chair.

He is of the view that after occupying the Speaker's chair for more than four years, it is now impossible to vote with the BJP.

Earlier, Chatterjee had said that his was a Constitutional position and he had an impartial role.

Interestingly, his stand has already found echo in a section of the Left with West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty having joined the chorus.

"I cannot be happy if circumstances lead to such a position that the CPI-M and BJP come together and take a decision to fight together and bring down the UPA Government, " Chakraborty said.