Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and former Rajya Sabha member, died on Thursday after a prolonged illness. He was 72.
Yechury had been receiving treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for acute respiratory tract infection. He was in the intensive care unit and had been on respiratory support for the past few days, under the care of a multidisciplinary team of doctors.
Yechury's political journey began in 1974 when he joined the Students' Federation of India (SFI). He became a CPI(M) member in 1975 and succeeded Prakash Karat as the General Secretary of CPI(M) in 2015 and was re-elected to the position twice, in 2018 and 2022.
Yechury was a prominent Indian politician who held a seat in the CPM politburo for 32 years. Additionally, he represented West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, from 2005 to 2017.