The 89 year old Somnath Chatterjee suffered a Mild heart attack and was declared dead today morning at Kolkata hospital. He suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in June 2018 and was hospitalized for more than a month.

President Ramnath Kovind expressed his grief and posted condolence message on micro blogging website Twitter as saying, “ Sorry to hear of the passing of Shri Somnath Chatterjee, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a veteran parliamentarian who had a forceful presence in the House. A loss for public life in Bengal and India. My condolences to his family and innumerable well-wishers”.

Prime minister Narendra Modi also is anguished by his demise and remembered the veteran leader as saying “Parliamentary democracy richer “

“ Former MP and Speaker Shri Somnath Chatterjee was a stalwart of Indian politics. He made our Parliamentary democracy richer and was a strong voice for the well-being of the poor and vulnerable. Anguished by his demise. My thoughts are with his family and supporters”, PM Modi tweeted.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State (I/C) Youth Affairs & Sports, MoS (I/C) Information & Broadcasting recalled his enriched contribution towards Indian polity as expressing his grief, “Saddened by the demise of veteran parliamentarian & former speaker #SomnathChatterjee. He was respected across party lines and his contribution enriched Indian polity”, He tweeted.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted on the demise of veteran leader as expressing the sorrow “I mourn the passing away of Shri Somnath Chatterjee, 10 term MP and former Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He was an institution. Greatly respected and admired by all parliamentarians, across party lines. My condolences to his family at this time of grief.

Worth mention here the condition of Somnath Chatterjee continued to be serious on Sunday after he suffered from a mild heart attack. Chatterjee had been on ventilation for the last five days after he was admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday owing to kidney related complications.

Somnath Chatterjee was the Speaker in the first five-year term (2004-2009) of the United Progressive Alliance government. He was elected to the Parliament's Lower House for ten times since 1971.

He was born in Tezpur, Assam. His father, Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, was a well-known lawyer, intellectual, and Hindu revivalist and nationalist around the time of India's independence. He was expelled from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in July 2008 for rejecting to resign as Speaker after CPI-M took out support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Somnath was educated at Mitra Institution School, Presidency College and then the University of Calcutta in Calcutta(Now Kolkatta). He also attended Jesus College, Cambridge and graduating with a B.A. in 1952 and a M.A. in 1957, both in law, has been awarded an honorary fellowship by the college in 2007. He was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in London and took up legal practice as an advocate at the Calcutta High Court before joining active politics.