Somnath Chatterjee role model as speaker: PM

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had emerged as a role model in transacting the business of the house, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday, the last day of the 14th Lok Sabha.

In a message read out by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the prime minister said: "In transacting the business of the parliament you have become the role model."

With his conduct, the speaker had raised the bar of standard of the office for others to follow, the prime minister, who is recuperating after a coronary by-pass surgery, added.

Thursday is the last day of Chatterjee as speaker in the last session of the 14th Lok Sabha. Chatterjee, an MP from Bolpur in West Bengal, has announced that he would not contest elections and was bowing out of political life.