Basu advises Somnath to toe party line

Amid mounting pressure from within his own party to quit the post of Speaker with the trust vote in the Lok Sabha only nine days away, CPI (M) leader Somnath Chatterjee had a prolonged meeting with the Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu who is understood to have advised him to abide by the party line.

After the 50-minute meeting between Basu and Chatterjee, party insiders said that the Marxist veteran played the role of a crisis manager persuading the Speaker to follow the party line as the Left parties had already withdrawn support to the UPA Government.

Emerging from the meeting at Basu’s residence at Salt Lake, Chatterjee refused to speak to the reporters and drove off.

Basu also was not available for comment.

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Chatterjee had reportedly taken exception to his name being included in the list of the Left MPS who had withdrawn support to the UPA Government which was presented to President Pratibha Patil.

Half an hour earlier, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Basu and explained to him as the Leader of the Lok Sabha the circumstances leading to the collapse of the UPA-Left coalition.