The Bengal CPI(M) otherwise rallied behind Prakash Karat on whether Speaker Somnath Chatterjee should resign and vote against the government, ahead of its state committee and Left Front meeting today, with transport minister Subhas Chakrabarty filing an apology for saying that he felt Chatterjee should not resign and that the CPI(M) should not vote with the BJP in the no-confidence motion to be put to vote in Parliament on July 22.

CPI(M) sources said Karat and his group would have been happier if Somnath Chatterjee had been included in the whip but relented in view of the fact that the Bengal group had earlier accepted their request to send non-Bengal CPI(M) leaders like Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yechury to Parliament, ignoring the aspirations of eminent Left leaders from Bengal.

Pro-Somnath leaders here indicated that the Speaker was so upset that he could have resigned from the CPI(M) if forced on the issue, but this was dismissed by others in the CPI(M) as posturing.

Chakrabarty was a protégé of former chief minister and CPI(M) senior leader Jyoti Basu like Chatterjee. A section of Left leaders had interpreted his comment as reflecting the viewpoint of Basu but Basu had reportedly refused to endorse Chakrabarty's line when the latter met Basu at his residence on July 16.

The CPI(M) and state committee of the Left Front would meet again on July 19 to discuss the July 22 vote.

Left parties like RSP and FB supported Karat's position that the Speaker was not above the party and he should obey the CPI(M) line that directed MPs to vote against the Singh government.