Yechury leaves open possibility of readmission of Somnath Chatterjee in CPIM

Indicating an open mind on readmitting expelled party veteran and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somanth Chatterjee into the party, CPIM General Secretary Sitram Yechury on Saturday said it was for the West Bengal unit to take a call based on which the central leadership would act.

"It is upto the West Bengal unit to take a call on the matter. The central leadership will take a decision based on the decision of the West Bengal unit of the party," he told reporters in Thrissur on the sidelines of a party function. Yechury, elected CPI(M) General Secretary in April last, was responding to a question whether he would be willing to take back Chatterjee into the party since he (Yechury) had stated he would work to bring back leaders who had left the party in the past.

He said Chatterjee had been associated with the party programmes for quite some time now. Chatterjee, a front-ranking CPI(M) leader for decades, was expelled from the party in July, 2008 after the trust vote in Parliament over Indo-US nuclear deal.