New Delhi: In what is being seen as the first sign of revolt within the Left, West Bengal Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Subhas Chakraborty backed Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and said he should not quit as the Speaker before the trust vote in Parliament.

Chakraborty also said that the CPI-M should not vote with the BJP on the Indo-US nuclear deal as “voting with the saffron party will harm our party’s interests”.

“We can’t be equated with BJP to fight American imperialism. This is my own view and my own understanding and everyone has the right to have his view. I agree with Somnath Chaterjee’s view and I have given my view to my party,” Chakraborty added.

Meanwhile, amid mounting pressure from within the Left, Chatterjee had a prolonged meeting with the Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu who is understood to have advised him to abide by the party line.

After the 50-minute meeting between Basu and Chatterjee, party insiders said that the former West Bengal chief minister played the role of a crisis manager persuading the Speaker to follow the party as the Left parties had already withdrawn support to the UPA Government.

Chatterjee’s name was given by CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat as one of the 44 MPs who were withdrawing support to the Government. But the Speaker made it clear that if he is forced to resign from his post, then he will give up his Lok Sabha membership as well.

In a statement released recently, Chatterjee had claimed that the Speaker doesn’t belong to any political party. In fact CNN-IBN has learnt that he is upset with the inclusion of his name without his consent.

He has already announced that this will be his last election and so he doesn’t want to end his parliamentary career on a bitter note. He is also believed to be upset with his party colleagues for not backing him during the presidential polls, when he was keen on contesting.

Left launches nationwide protests

The Left parties launched their nationwide protest on Monday against the UPA Government. A rally is being held in Delhi and the next leg of the campaign will be in Chennai on July 16.

Rallies will also be held in other parts of the country, including the Left-ruled states of Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal.

Apart from the Indo-US nuclear deal, the campaign will highlight the failures of the UPA Government to control prices and meet promises under the Common Minimum Programme. The protest is being seen as the beginning of the Left parties campaign for General Elections.

At a Left protest rally in Delhi, Karat listed the reasons for his party’s withdrawal of support to the UPA. He feared the nuclear deal would make India “a junior partner of the US.”

“We are not in favour of India becoming junior partner of America. On the directions of USA we have gone against Iran. All USA-based multinationals will enter India after this deal. They will enter all primary sectors of the economy,” Karat warned.

Meanwhile, Left leader AB Bardhan said, “The Government is desperate to win the trust vote and is wooing small parties and indulging in horse trading.”