Kolkata, Jun 29 (PTI) The health condition of former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, currently admitted in a city hospital, is gradually improving, an official of the hospital said.

"Chatterjee is gradually improving but will take more time (to recover)," the senior hospital executive said.

The family members and doctors attending him did not disclose the ailment due to which the 89-year-old former parliamentarian was admitted to the ICU earlier this week.

The family members do not want the ailment to be disclosed, the official had said yesterday.

Chatterjee, a former CPI(M) leader and 10-time Lok Sabha MP, was speaker of the Lok Sabha in the first Congress led UPA government from 2004-2009.

The CPI(M) expelled him in 2008 for not resigning as the speaker after the party withdrew its support from the UPA-1 government over Indo-US nuclear deal.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)