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Future of CPM worrying: Somnath

Last updated on: February 27, 2009 21:54 IST

Outgoing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed concern about the manner in which  money was flaunted by some MPs during the Trust Vote on July 23rd last year to save the government.  
 
Addressing mediapersons after the conclusion of 14th Lok Sabha, he said, "My comment that all MPs should all be defeated  was made more out  of frustration."

Asked why he made such a  comment, he quipped, "I felt that people chose them and  they must work for them." 
 
"I must confess that   four-and–half  years is the most  saddest years in  my life, " Somnath said.
 
He also said with great remorse that one of my "saddest"  days in my life was when former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee signed a letter of  my removal from the speaker post, but added that later Vajpayee  called at my place and  expressed his solidarity.
 
He also said no party discussed any issues of national importance seriously.
 
Announcing his  `sanyas' from the active political life, he said, "I think I have been able to set trend of retirement  from politics."

He rejected Opposition Leader L K Advani's suggestion that prime minister should be from the Lok Sabha.

"The prime minister  should be one who is capable of leading the nation,"  he said. 
 
Asked how does he see the future of Communist Party of India-Marxist, he said, "Worrying."

Onkar Singh in New Delhi