Is the Left getting stronger, asks Somnath

Kolkata, May 13 (IANS) Questioning whether the Left parties were indeed getting stronger, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said Wednesday that their importance lay in the fact that 'no one is ignoring them'.

'Is the Left getting stronger?' Chatterjee asked while replying to questions related to the strength of Left parties in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

'The importance of the Left is that no one is ignoring them,' said Chatterjee, who was expelled by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) after he went against the party's directive and refused to step down as speaker during the July 22 trust motion in parliament last year.

The veteran parliamentarian is not contesting elections this time.