New Delhi: With the Presidential race hotting up, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, whose name is doing the rounds for the top post, appears open to the idea of being a candidate, but has left it to the political parties to take a decision. "It is for them (political parties and MPs and MLAs) to decide. This is a matter not depending on one's own opinion. I have not spoken to anybody. Nobody has spoken to me," he said in an interview to PTI on completion of three years today as Presiding Officer of the Lok Sabha.

Noting that he is "not concerned" himself over the issue, he said, "I have some friends. I have friends in many parties. But that has nothing to do with the Presidentship of the country." He said this when asked about the Samajwadi Party announcing support to him sometime back to succeed A P J Abdul Kalam at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and whether he was "best suited" for the high office given his experience in Parliament and the legal profession. "I don't become a candidate just because there is some speculation about my name," he said adding that it was "quite a surprise" for him when he became the Speaker.

He said it was the "strength of Indian democracy" that he was elected the Speaker without belonging to the ruling party. He said a foreign delegation had once expressed surprise of his being the Presiding Officer despite being part of a party which had less than ten per cent of the Lok Sabha strength.