His was the stentorian voice that effectively projected the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) view in Parliament - and outside - for four decades. On Wednesday, just two days before Somnath Chatterjee's 79th birthday that link snapped when one of India's most skilful parliamentarians and now Speaker of the lower House of Parliament was expelled from the party.
The often pugnacious and sometimes avuncular Chatterjee found himself ousted from the party he has been representing in the Lok Sabha, almost without a pause since 1971, a day after his commanding performance as its presiding officer.
On Monday, Chatterjee defied his party's diktat to continue in the Speaker's chair and preside over the two-day crucial trust vote that went against the CPM and was finally won by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The CPM's swift move to sack him from the party the day after the vote was perhaps no surprise for the man, who had taken on the wrath of the leadership when he decided to stay on as Speaker even after the Left parties had withdrawn support to the UPA.
Just as his many decades as MP stood out for their forceful articulation of the Left viewpoint, his four years as Speaker have been remarkable. He has cajoled, rebuked and ranted - with many a one-liner thrown in - while taking on the job of steering the 545-member House.
Chatterjee may have often been criticised as a schoolmaster, but is acknowledged as one of India's more colourful and articulate speakers.
"Let them do what they want," a defiant Chatterjee told reporters shortly before the CPM announced his expulsion - marking his metamorphosis to a "rebel".
This "rebel", who gave up a promising career as a barrister, was not the homespun, grassroots comrade in the strict mould of a card holding member of the Communist party.
The son of Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, who was president of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a forerunner of the current day Bharatiya Janata Party, had signed up with the CPM relatively late in life -- when he was 39.
There was little looking back after that for the graduate from the Kolkata, Cambridge and Glasgow universities. Since 1971, he has lost an election only once - in 1984 by Mamata Banerjee in Jadavpur, West Bengal.
The 10-time MP then moved to Bolpur constituency in the state and never went back to Jadavpur.
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