Somnath Chatterjee's death is a great loss for us all: Mamata Banerjee

"Saddened at the passing away of former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath (Da) Chatterjee. My condolences to his family and admirers. This is a great loss for us all," Mamata tweeted.

Banerjee had left the political world of Bengal shocked when she defeated Chatterjee in 1984 from Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency. 

With the victory over the veteran leader, she became the youngest Lok Sabha MP at 29. 

Banerjee was a Congress leader then.

Somnath Chatterjee, who was also a 10-time Parliamentarian in his political career, passed away in Kolkata on Monday.

He was 89.

Chatterjee was admitted in a Kolkata hospital for the past few days.

He was reportedly suffering from a kidney-related ailment.

He was in and out of the hospital for the past few months, reports said.

Somnath Chatterjee had joined the CPI-M in 1968 and was a central committee member of the party.

He had served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004-2009.

Chatterjee, however, was expelled from the CPI-M  in 2008 after he refused to resign as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha following his party's decision to withdraw support to the UPA-I government.