Not returning to CPI-M on health grounds: Somnath

Kolkata: Amidst speculation of expelled CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee returning to the party fold, the former Lok Sabha speaker said on Sunday that this would not be possible for him on "health grounds".

"It is just not possible. I am not keeping well and have long retired from active politics... However, I have supported the party on various issues in the past," he said.

The speculation arose after Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury had met him on Sunday in his residence in Bolpur in West Bengal.

The octogenarian leader said that there was "no discussion today (Sunday) about joining back" but if his health permits, he would like to attend party programmes.

Yechury said Chatterjee's relationship with the party would continue although the expelled leader is not actively in the party.

"He is cooperating in every programme and is very much associated with us," he said.

Chatterjee was expelled from the CPI-M in July 2008 after he refused to resign from the post of the Lok Sabha speaker after the left parties had withdrawn support from the then Manmohan Singh government to protest the nuclear deal between India and the US.