12 February,2009 05:34 PM IST | | PTI
Ruling out any possibility of contesting the coming general elections, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Thursday said it was time for him to take retirement from active politics.
"I should retire now...sanyas, sanyas," he told reporters when asked whether he would contest the coming Lok Sabha elections if he was offered ticket by any political party.
Chatterjee was expelled from CPI(M) as he refused to quit the Speaker's post despite a directive from the party, which asked him to demit office after withdrawing support to the UPA on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
He had contended that he has been elected by all parties. The 79-year old parliamentarian on Wednesday had said he planned to write a book when his term as the custodian of the Lok Sabha ends.
