Kolkata, July 24 (IANS) Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader and West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty Thursday said he was shocked by the expulsion of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party.

'I am shocked. What more can I say? What more do you want me to say?' Chakraborty told reporters.

The CPI-M Wednesday expelled Chatterjee for breach of discipline after he defied the party's directive to give up the Speaker's post ahead of Tuesday's trust vote in parliament, which the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government won.

Chakraborty last week shot off a letter to party general secretary Prakash Karat opposing the party's stand to vote against the UPA government alongside of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the trust motion.

Chatterjee is also understood to have expressed similar feelings in a separate letter to Karat.

Chakraborty, a member of the state secretariat, was censured by the party central committee Sunday for airing his views through the media, though he later apologised for his public comments.