Somnath Chatterjee was born July 25, 1929 in Tezpur, Assam is a politician in India. He is currently the Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha
The father of Somnath Chatterjee, Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, was the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, an organization that championed Hindu causes and a forerunner of today’s BJP. Later he left Hindu Mahasabha to join left politics and was elected to the Parliament with CPI support.
Chatterjee was educated at Mitra Institution School (Calcutta), Presidency College and then the University of Calcutta in Calcutta. He also attended Cambridge University and has been awarded an honorary fellowship of Jesus College. He was called to the bar in England and was a litigating barrister at the Calcutta High Court before joining active politics.
Chatterjee is a member of the Communist Party of India - Marxist. He joined the party in 1968. In 1971, he was given a ticket to contest an interim election caused by the death of his father who was elected from that constituency. He became a Member of the Lok Sabha in 1971 and was elected the first time as an independent candidate supported by the CPI (M).
Somnath Chatterjee began his career as a lawyer and joined active politics in 1968, when he became a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He has been one of the party’s leading spokesmen.
His association with national politics began when he contested the elections to the Lok Sabha in 1971 and was elected the very first time. Since then, he has served as a member in all successive Lok Sabhas, except in 1984 when he lost to Mamata Banerjee , getting elected for the tenth time in 2004 as a member of the present 14th Lok Sabha.