With Somnath Chatterjee holding firm as Speaker of Lok Sabha and the CPM leadership maintaining that it was entirely up to him to take a decision, CPM leader Varkala Radhakrishnan today became the first senior party member to demand his resignation from the post, saying Chatterjee’s argument that he would not be able to vote with the BJP against the UPA government does not hold much water and is “childish”.

Eighty-one-year-old Radhakrishnan, a three-time MP who represents Chirayinkil in Kerala and is a former Speaker of the state Assembly, said Chatterjee was elected Speaker unanimously and the BJP too had supported him at that time.

“To say now that he cannot vote with the BJP does not hold much water. He did not have any problem when the BJP supported his candidature to the post of Speaker,” said Radhakrishnan.

“He became a Speaker after the UPA and Left entered into an alliance. He was duly elected as a CPM candidate. He is morally bound to resign when support to the Government is withdrawn by the Left parties,” he said. “As an experienced Parliamentarian, I would humbly urge Chatterjee to vacate office. If some motion of removal is put forth, then he will have to leave office,” he said.

He said the UPA, Left and BJP had voted in favour of many issues together during the present term of the Lok Sabha. “This (Chatterjee’s stand) is childish. Every party has its own stand on issues. Even the Speaker has to toe his party’s line,” he said.

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