CPI-M OK with Somnath as LS speaker

The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday accepted Congress' offer to field veteran Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee for the post of Lok Sabha speaker.

"We have considered the Congress offer and agreed to accept it," CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet told reporters after a day-long meeting of the party's politbureau in Kolkata.

Left parties are pre-poll allies of the Congress, which is leading the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.