Veteran CPM leader Sitaram Yechury passes away

Veteran leader and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury passed away on Thursday. He was 73.

He has been undergoing treatment for acute respiratory tract infection at the ICU in AIIMS since August 19. 

Yechury was born to Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury and Kalpakam Yechury in Chennai. He grew up in Hyderabad and attended All Saints High School before moving to New Delhi after the Telangana agitation of 1969.

After completing his schooling, he pursued a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, and later earned an M.A. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He began a Ph.D. in Economics at JNU, but his studies were cut short when he was arrested during The Emergency.

During the 1970s, Yechury served as president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union three times, representing the SFI. By 1984, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPM, quickly becoming a prominent full-time party member.  

Yechury is recognized for his strategic approach to coalition politics aimed at countering right-wing influence. He, along with P. Chidambaram, was instrumental in crafting the common minimum program for the United Front government in 1996. Yechury has been a member of the Politburo of the CPM since 1992. Previously, he was a Rajya Sabha  MP from West Bengal from 2005 to 2017.