Somnath Chatterjee, the former Lok Sabha speaker, has been admitted to a private nursing home in Kolkata. His condition is said to be critical.
The 89-year-old CPI(M) veteran is suffering from a kidney ailment and was put on ventilator support on Saturday. He was re-admitted to hospital on August 10 following the slight decline in his health. He was earlier admitted to a Kolkata hospital in June. He was released after his health improved after a few days.
Somnath Chatterjee served as the Speaker of Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. He is one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in India. He joined the CPI(M) in 1968 and remained its leader till 2008.
He was expelled from the CPI(M) in 2008 after he refused to resign as the speaker of the Lok Sabha following the party’s decision to withdraw support from the UPA-1 government over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The 10-time Lok Sabha MP is currently an independent candidate.