From correspondents in India, 10:30 PM IST

Even as the Left parties were mounting pressure on Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to quit the post after they withdrew support to the government, the veteran Marxist leader Sunday met party veteran Jyoti Basu but kept everyone guessing about his decision.

Chatterjee held an hour-long meeting with Jyoti Basu in Kolkata Sunday. He left without speaking to journalists after the meeting at Basu's residence.

Chatterjee's name, as a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP, is included in the letter the four Left parties jointly presented to President Pratibha Patil Wednesday, formally withdrawing the support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

In New Delhi, when asked to comment on Chatterjee, Communist party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan told reporters: 'He is competent enough to decide on his own, taking into consideration all developments.'

CPI-M sources said the party would like him to resign from the post before the government seeks a trust vote in a two-day special parliament session July 21-22.

According to the sources, communist leaders met Chatterjee last week and urged him to consider quitting the post in the light of the communist parties' withdrawal of support to the government.

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat told a news conference earlier this week: 'He (Chatterjee) will decide for himself and will take a decision.'

However, Chatterjee earlier said: 'Leave it to me, I am still the speaker.'

Also, an official communique from Chatterjee's secretariat Thursday made clear that he has no plans to relinquish the speaker's post he has been holding since April 2004.

'The honourable speaker does not represent any political party in the discharge of his duties and functions. It is well known the present speaker's election to the high office was not only uncontested but was unanimous as all political parties proposed his name,' it said.

Chatterjee was elected the Lok Sabha speaker following an understanding between the Left and the UPA after the 2004 parliamentary elections.

The Congress, meanwhile, has finalised its plans to fill in the vacancy in case Chatterjee quits. The party leadership has zeroed in on V. Kishore Chandra Deo.

Deo, a Scheduled Tribes leader representing Parvathipuram in Andhra Pradesh, is chairman of the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)