The Politburo was attended by General Secretary Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, S R Ramachandran Pillai, Sitaram Yechury, Mohd Amin, M K Pandhe and K Varadarajan.

The party leadership expected Chatterjee to quit and had included his name in the list of MPs who had withdrawn support to the ruling coalition without consulting him, a step that angered the veteran Marxist leader. The party later claimed that it was a clerical oversight that his name was included in the list.

As Chatterjee refused to relent, the party leadership roped in his mentor Jyoti Basu to persuade him but that did not work and he continued to remain in office.

“It is logical. He brought it upon himself. No Communist party worth the name would have allowed somebody like him to flout the unanimous decision of its Central Committee. I think they were left with no alternative but to expel him,” said CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan.

The news of Chatterjee’s expulsion came as a shock to many of his party colleagues in Kolkata. Only Subhash Chakrabarty, a West Bengal CPM state secretariat member and the state’s Transport and Youth Affairs minister went on the record: “I am deeply pained at this development. I am sad. I will let my party know my feelings at the appropriate time.”

Sources close to Chatterjee in Kolkata said that once he decided to Chair the motion, he gradually began dissociating himself from various posts, including primary party membership. He initiated this process by resigning from the chairmanship on Sriniketan-Santiniketan Development Authority, under state urban development department, 48 hours before the confidence motion.

... contd.