KOLKATA: Unlike his predecessors like Shivraj Patil and Purno A Sangma, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee doesn't want to continue in active politics after he quits the post — although it's not known exactly when he will vacate his office.

Instead, Chatterjee would like to be remembered as a Speaker with a difference, who could dare to challenge his fellow comrades' diktat to prove that the Speaker's post is above party politics.

The Speaker is likely to reply to the CPM tirade — for his refusal to quit after the Left parties withdrew support to the UPA government on July 9 over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal — after he leaves office.

According to sources, Chatterjee may put in his papers after Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen addresses Parliament on August 11.

Chatterjee has reportedly told some of his close associates that CPM general secretary Prakash Karat had asked him to abstain from voting during the trust vote on July 22, but was expelled from the party the next day.

CPM sources, however, cited that Chatterjee had told party leaders, including state party secretary Biman Bose, that he would step down on July 23 after the trust vote, which he didn't, necessitating his expulsion.

Former CPM MP Saifuddin Chowdhury, who was thrown out of the party for not toeing the party line, called on Chatterjee at his Raj Bhavan residence in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Chowdhury, who floated his own outfit, Party for Democratic Socialism, after his ouster from CPM, said, "I told Somnath Chatterjee that he may leave party politics, but he should keep himself engaged on national issues."

RSP leader and state irrigation minister Subhas Naskar also met the Speaker, days after RSP all-India secretary T J Chandrachuran called Chatterjee 'Mir Jafar' (traitor) for flouting the party line.

RSP central secretary Manoj Bhattacharya, however, said, "Naskar's meeting with the Speaker has nothing to do with politics. The Speaker must have called the RSP minister for some administrative purpose. After all, he (Somnath) is still the LS Speaker."

Bhattacharya added, "We don't endorse Chandrachuran's view on Chatterjee. He is an institution by himself. Chatterjee's expulsion from CPM is unfortunate, given his stature. But it's an internal matter of CPM."