Somnath Chatterjee: Not physically, mentally fit to return to CPM

BOLPUR: CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury today firmly indicated that Marxist veteran Somnath Chatterjee would be reinducted into the party, seven years after his expulsion.
After having lunch at the former Lok Sabha Speaker's home here in Bolpur, Yechury told reporters, “Somnath babu is very active in party programmes. He has campaigned for party candidates in elections.The formality in connection with his party membership should not be a big question.”
However, 86-year-old Chatterjee, who was expelled in July, 2008 after he had refused to step down as the Lok Sabha Speaker in protest over the Indo-US nuclear deal, said he was not physically and mentally sound to rejoin the party.
“Right now it’s not possible for me to rejoin party and work actively. I am not physically and mentally fit. If my condition improves and the party asks me anything, only then these questions should be discussed,” Chatterjee told reporters.
Chatterjee’s re-inclusion, according to CPM party rules, can only be kick-started if he applies to the party afresh. Something, which Chatterjee himself had indicated, he is averse to. Yechury also attended a programme of a girl's college of which Chatterjee is the president.