New Delhi: Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], has passed away at the age of 72. He was undergoing treatment for an acute respiratory tract infection at a Delhi hospital, where he had been admitted on August 19.
Yechury was a prominent figure in Indian politics for several decades, playing a key role in shaping the direction of the CPI(M) and the broader Left movement. Several political leaders, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, have expressed their condolences.
Beginning his political career with the Student Federation of India, Yechury was arrested during the 1975 Emergency under the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government. After his release, he rose through the ranks, becoming president of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s student body and later a significant player in national politics.
He played a pivotal role in the coalition governments of the 1990s, helping form a 13-party alliance that governed India from 1996 to 1998. In 2004, his party achieved a landmark victory, winning 44 parliamentary seats and offering outside support to the Congress-led government. However, the CPI(M) later withdrew its backing over opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, a decision that drew mixed reactions.
Yechury’s tenure as general secretary from 2015 was marked by the Left’s declining influence, with the party losing strongholds like West Bengal. He served in the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017.
Rahul Gandhi paid tribute to him as a “protector of the Idea of India,” while Mamata Banerjee described his death as “a loss for national politics.”
