Kolkata: Somnath Chatterjee, former Lok Sabha Speaker, was put on life support on Friday evening after he developed acute breathing difficulty.
89-year-old Chatterjee has breathing and cardiac problems, hospital sources said.
He was earlier admitted to a Kolkata hospital in June. He was released after his improved after a few days. "Chatterjee is gradually improving but will take more time (to recover)," the senior hospital executive had said.
He was admitted to a South Kolkata nursing home over a week ago with age-related ailments.
Chatterjee's condition became serious on Friday evening and he was put on life support system. A medical board has been constituted to monitor his health.
The family members and doctors attending him did not disclose the ailment due to which the former Parliamentarian was admitted to the ICU earlier this week.
Chatterjee, a legal luminary, was the Lok Sabha Speaker from 2004 to 2009. He joined the CPI(M) in 1968 and was a member of the party till his expulsion in 2008, after he flouted the party's diktats. He was a Central Committee member of CPI(M) and was the leader of the party in Lok Sabha from 1989 to 2004.
Chatterjee became an MP in 1971, fighting as an Independent candidate with support from CPI(M). He was re-elected as an MP nine consecutive times, except when he lost to Mamata Banerjee from Jadavpur Parliamentary Constituency in 1984. Chatterjee was unanimously elected as the Speaker in 2004.
The CPI(M) expelled him in 2008 for not resigning as the Speaker after the party withdrew its support from the UPA-1 government over Indo-US nuclear deal.