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Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away at a Kolkata hospital on Monday morning after he was put on ventilator support on Sunday. He was 89.
Somnath’s condition had deteriorated on Sunday after he suffered a “mild heart attack” while undergoing treatment, said a hospital official.
Chatterjee was suffering from a kidney-related ailment and was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition on Tuesday. He was undergoing dialysis. “In such cases, it happens at times that the heart stops giving support”, a senior hospital official had told PTI.
Last month, the former speaker had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. He had been undergoing treatment for over 40 days. Chatterjee was discharged from the hospital just for three days after his health showed signs of improvement. However, his condition deteriorated last Tuesday and he had to be hospitalised again, PTI has reported.
A 10-time Lok Sabha MP, Chatterjee was a central committee member of the CPI(M), which he had joined in 1968. He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
The veteran leader was, however, expelled from the CPI(M) in 2008 for refusing to resign as the Speaker after his party withdrew support to the UPA-I government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Chatterjee's demise, saying that the latter was a "strong voice for the well being of the poor and vulnerable".
Congress President Rahul Gandhi also expressed his condolences on Twitter:
(With inputs from PTI)
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