Veteran Left leader and CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury passed away on September 12, 2024, at the age of 72, after battling a respiratory illness.
He had been receiving treatment at AIIMS in Delhi since August 19, where he was admitted to the ICU with a pneumonia-like infection.
Yechury, a stalwart of Indian leftist politics, had a long career, serving as a member of the CPM’s Politburo for over three decades and as a Rajya Sabha member from 2005 to 2017.
Yechury, an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, began his political journey with the Students’ Federation of India, joining the CPM in 1975.
His political career took off during the Emergency when he was arrested.
He played a crucial role in Indian politics, including drafting the Common Minimum Programme for the United Front government in 1996 and the UPA coalition in 2004.
Condolences poured in from leaders across the political spectrum, with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi calling Yechury a “protector of the Idea of India” and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee describing his death as a loss for national politics.