He was undergoing treatment at AIIMS in Delhi for an acute respiratory tract infection. Yechury has been a CPI(M) Central Committee member since 1984 and the politburo since 1992.
Published Sep 12, 2024 | 4:21 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 12, 2024 | 10:30 PM
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. (X)
CPI(M) General Secretary and former Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury passed away at 72 on Thursday, 12 September. He was undergoing treatment at AIIMS in Delhi for an acute respiratory tract infection.
Yechury has been a CPI(M) Central Committee member since 1984 and the politburo since 1992. Born into a Telugu family in Madras (now Chennai) on 12 August 1952, he attended school mostly in Hyderabad.
“Yechury is one of the most influential leaders who has significantly contributed to Indian politics. His position in the party is irreplaceable, and his loss is a great loss to Indian politics as well,” CPI(M) leader and former Kerala minister MA Baby told South First.
V.P. Sanu, President of the SFI, told South First, “Our SFI office in Delhi operates out of a bungalow allotted to Sitaram Yechury by the government, and we, the leaders, also stay here. Every day when he is in Delhi, he makes it a point to visit the Safdar Hashmi Memorial, even on the day he was hospitalised on August 19. It’s incredible how he manages to find time between his busy schedule to interact with comrades and theatre activists. He was an SFI leader and through the SFI, he made his way to JNU, where he was elected as the Students’ Union President three times. From 1984 to 1986, he served as the All India President of the SFI and was also the Chief Editor of the SFI magazine ‘Student Struggle’ from 1980 to 1986.”
Yechury’s s father was an engineer in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation and his mother was a government officer. He moved to Delhi after tenth class and later became the first rank holder in the CBSE higher secondary examination.
Yechury has an undergraduate degree in Economics (Hons) from St Stephen’s College in Delhi and a Master’s in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi.
Yechury was influenced by the communist movement during his student days and joined the Student Federation of India (SFI) in 1974. A year later, he joined the CPI(M). He was later elected the president of JNU’s students union.
The education at JNU was instrumental in shaping the politician out of the young student, who later became one of the most influential voices in the country.
He discontinued his PhD due to his arrest during the Emergency in 1975.
In 1978, he became the national joint secretary of SFI and later became its national president.
Yechury was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2005 and then in 2011. He had also served on various parliamentary committees.
Yechury is the author of books like Left Hand Drive, What is this Hindu Rashtra, Socialism in the 21st Century, Communalism vs Secularism and Ghrina Ki Rajniti (Hindi).
He was then elected as the fifth General Secretary of CPI(M) at the party’s 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam on 19 April, 2015.
He succeeded Prakash Karat, who had held the post for three consecutive terms, from 2005 to 2015. Yechury was instrumental in the coalition-building process during the formation of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Congress in 2004
Yechuri was again re-elected as General Secretary of CPI(M) at the 22nd Party Congress held in Hyderabad in 2018 and for the third term at the 23rd Party Congress held at Kannur in 2022.
He was married to journalist Seema Chisti. He was married before, to Indrani Mazumdar and has a daughter and a son from this marriage.
Sitaram Yechury, who was then the President of the JNU Students’ Union, led a student march to the residence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
(Picture credits : Twitter/ @Advaidism)
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
