National

It is for parties to decide: Somnath

I don't become a candidate just because there is some speculation, he says "President... a symbol of the nation and an embodiment of the country's ethos"

NEW DELHI: With the Presidential race hotting up, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, whose name is doing the rounds for the top post, appears open to the idea of being a candidate, but has left it to the political parties to take a decision.

"It is for them [political parties and MPs and MLAs] to decide. This is a matter not depending on one's own opinion. I have not spoken to anybody. Nobody has spoken to me," he said in an interview to PTI on completion of three years on Sunday as Presiding Officer of the Lok Sabha.

Noting that he is "not concerned" himself over the issue, he said, "I have some friends. I have friends in many parties. But that has nothing to do with the Presidentship of the country."

"I don't become a candidate just because there is some speculation about my name," he said. It was "quite a surprise" for him when he became the Speaker.

He said it was the "strength of Indian democracy" that he was elected the Speaker without belonging to the ruling party.

He said a foreign delegation had once expressed surprise at his being the Presiding Officer despite being part of a party which had less than 10 per cent of the Lok Sabha strength.

Having a dig at the media, the Speaker said that now opinion polls were also being conducted as to who should be the next President, even though the ordinary citizen is not the voter. He recalled that the exit polls in the Uttar Pradesh polls had gone awry.

He emphasised that the office of the President was a "symbol of the nation and an embodiment of country's ethos" and therefore, should not be a matter of media speculation.

Asked whether it was time to move to some other constitutional position after an eventful three years as Speaker, he sidestepped the question, "I have never been an MLA. I want to become a Sabhadhipati in a Zila Parishad. Once I wanted to become a Mayor of Kolkata but my party — the CPI (M) did not give any credence to it." — PTI

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