Feb 26 will be Somnath's last day in Parliament

The forthcoming brief sitting of Lok Sabha is the last session for Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who has virtually ruled out chances of contesting elections again even as an Independent against the backdrop of differences with his erstwhile party.
        
"After the 12-day session, Feb 26 will be the last day for me," he told a select group of journalists describing  s "the worst period of my life" his tenure in the post which came to him "unexpected and unsolicited".
        
"There is no no reason for changing it so far.  There is no no scope for changing," Chatterjee,  said when asked about the chances of changing his decision in the context of reports that a rapprochement between him and his party was
possible.
        
Asked whether by saying "so far" he meant there were chances of changing his decision, he shot back  "it is only a
polite manner of speaking".
        
The Speaker said it was only the media which was speaking about such a possibility. "I am mentally quite tuned to retirement," he said adding he would listen to music, books and spend time with the family.
        
He dismissed the possibility of contesting as an Independent or with the backing of any other party.  "There is no no question," he said adding in a lighter vein "If I join any other party my wife has said she will divorce me."
        
Chatterjee said his refusal to quit the post on his party's directive has only reinforced the point that the position of Speaker was above party politics.
        
The ten-term MP from West Bengal plans to write memoirs on his 40-year parliamentary life.