Calcutta, July 13: Mamata Banerjee believes a split in the CPM is “inevitable” after Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s “refusal to resign”.

“Going by the Speaker’s refusal to resign from his post even a week after his name figured on the list of MPs submitted to the President (by CPM general secretary Prakash Karat), it is clear that serious differences have cropped up within the CPM,” Mamata said.

The differences, the Trinamul Congress chief added, were so stark that they reminded her of 1964, “when the Communist Party split because of ideological differences” and the CPM was formed.

“I strongly feel that another split is inevitable this time over the Speaker.”

The Speaker’s decision to stick to the post “smacks of an immense greed for power”, said Mamata.

As a rank newcomer, Mamata — then in the Congress — had beaten the CPM veteran in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections.

CPM central committee member Shyamal Chakraborty said Mamata was “day-dreaming about a split in the CPM”.

He also took a dig at her “knowledge” about the split that the party had suffered in 1964. “It’s good to learn that Mamata has a vast knowledge about the 1964 split in the undivided party.”

Mamata smelt a rat in external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s “sudden meeting” with Jyoti Basu today.

Mukherjee today called on Basu to explain to him the circumstances leading to the Left’s withdrawal of support to the Congress-led coalition at the Centre.

“I wonder if he (Mukherjee) is trying to work out a face-saving device to help the government survive the no-trust motion,” Mamata said.

Some state Congress leaders were “embarrassed” by their leader’s visit to the CPM patriarch. “It is embarrassing at a time we are trying to align with Mamata for the formation of panchayat and municipal boards in the districts,” one of them said.