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India has lost a parliamentary giant: From PM Modi to Rahul Gandhi, Twitter pays tribute to Somnath Chatterjee

Somnath Chatterjee, former LS Speaker, died on Monday morning

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Leaders from across India, irrespective of political differences, came together to pay tributes to former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who died earlier on Monday morning aged 89.

Leaders from BJP, Congress, AAP, as well as CPI(M) – Chatterjee’s former party, took to social media to pay their final respects.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief through twitter. ‘Former MP and Speaker Shri Somnath Chatterjee was a stalwart of Indian politics. He made our Parliamentary democracy richer and was a strong voice for the well-being of the poor and vulnerable. Anguished by his demise. My thoughts are with his family and supporters’, his tweet read.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted, ‘Saddened at the passing away of former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath (Da) Chatterjee. My condolences to his family and admirers. This is a great loss for us all’.

AICC president Rahul Gandhi too tweeted, ‘I mourn the passing away of Shri Somnath Chatterjee, 10 term MP and former Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He was an institution. Greatly respected and admired by all parliamentarians, across party lines. My condolences to his family at this time of grief. #SomnathChatterjee’.

Born on July 25, 1929, at Tezpur in Assam, his father, Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee was a prominent lawyer. He went to Mitra Education school and then University of Calcutta. Later he went to Jesus College in Cambridge and completed his MA in 1957.

He had joined Calcutta High Court as a lawyer and joined CPI(M) in 1968. He was the Lok Sabha speaker from 2004 to 2009. In 2008, he refused to step down as the speaker following his party’s withdrawal of support from the UPA government. As a result, he was expelled from the party, which he had later described as ‘one of the saddest days of his life’. Despite his expulsion, he was respected by his party leaders and many continued to visit him for guidance.

Married to Renu Chatterjee in February 1950, the couple has one son and two daughters.

Chatterjee was admitted to Belle Vue Hospital on August 10 following a cardiac arrest. Hospital authorities said he was also suffering from kidney ailment. A team of doctors was monitoring him since then. On Monday, he passed away at 8.15 am after suffering a heart attack.

In July, he had a haemorrhagic stroke and had been admitted to the hospital and after being treated for 40 days, he was discharged.

 

 

 

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