Calcutta, July 13: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today said the CPM did not consult him before putting his name on the list of Left MPs who withdrew support to the Manmohan Singh government.

“No, I was not consulted. I came to know after (it was presented to the President),’’ Chatterjee told The Telegraph after meeting party patriarch Jyoti Basu today.

“However, I must be fair to my general secretary (Prakash Karat) that after meeting the President, he left the decision over my resignation to me,’’ Chatterjee added.

At the same time, Chatterjee said he had “yet to take the final decision”, stressing the Speaker’s independent status as a “constitutional functionary”.

Asked whether he would resign in Delhi tomorrow, Chatterjee said: “These are all media speculation. The stage has not come as yet. As of now, I am not announcing anything.

“Constitutionally, there is no hindrance (to his continuance as Speaker). I am still listed as a CPM MP in the parliamentary documents. But the chair of the Speaker does not represent any party.’’

Sources said Chatterjee told Basu that if he was forced to relinquish the Chair, he would also resign as MP as he was not keen to vote along with the BJP. Basu is learnt to have agreed to give Chatterjee some time to take the final decision.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Basu in the evening, apparently at the instance of Karat to discuss Chatterjee’s reluctance to resign in a hurry.

CPM sources said they expected Chatterjee to resign soon. If he does not do so, the party is considering a proposal to write to him — an unpalatable choice for the leadership as it would be tantamount to dragging the office of the Speaker into a partisan issue.

Chatterjee rubbed in his non-partisan status today, underscoring that he was “unanimously” chosen the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha.

“I was not nominated by my party. Some of my predecessors had won uncontested after filing nomination. But my election was unanimous from the beginning as all camps had accepted me. There was no such record earlier. And in the last four-and-a-half years, nobody accused me of taking sides,’’ he said.

Asked whether he considered the unanimous support as the moral ground against stepping down, Chatterjee said: “That may be my view but it would be unfair to think that everybody will share it.’’

He declined to divulge what transpired between him and Basu. “It was not a big deal that I met Jyotibabu which I always do whenever I am in Calcutta. But I can’t say what he told me except that he didn’t put any pressure on me.’’

CPM sources said Basu shared Chatterjee’s grievances over the way his name had figured on the list of the Left MPs in “total disregard of his constitutional position”. Both leaders are said to harbour reservations about Karat’s drive to topple the UPA government.