Mohun Bagan's green-maroon and not red flag covered Somnath Chatterjee's mortal remains

Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee breathed his last on Monday morning following a cardiac arrest. Somnath was suffering from a kidney-related ailment and was admitted to a city-based hospital.

The mortal remains of the CPI(M) veteran, who was expelled from his party in 2008, was not covered with a red flag - a signature colour of the communist party. Instead, Somnath's body was found wrapped in a Mohun Bagan's flag, a Kolkata-based football club.

89-year-old Somnath was undergoing dialysis and was admitted to the ICCU. He had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke last month.

Somnath was a 10-time Lok Sabha MP and was a central committee member of the CPI(M). He had stepped into the world of politics in 1968. He served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.

The 10-time Lok Sabha MP is survived by his wife Renu, a son and two daughters. His daughter Anushila said that he had never said anything against the CPI(M), even though he was 'pained' after the Left party expelled him.

"We could see his agony and pain (after expulsion from the CPI-M). He loved the party throughout his life," Anushila said, adding that she had tried to make Chatterjee speak against the party, but her father never did it.

"We don't want any courtesy from them (CPIM). They have shown enough courtesy," she added.

Anushila, however, said many in the party kept contact with her father and some of them also came to attend his last rites.

The CPI(M) leaders, she said, proposed to place the party flag on Chatterjee's body. "(But) we did not agree, though my father might have been happy (if his body was draped with the party flag)."

Somnath was a die-hard fan and a member of the Mohun Bagan football club.

The veteran leader was expelled from the CPI(M) in 2008 for refusing to resign as the Speaker after his party withdrew support to the UPA-I government.

(With inputs from PTI)