Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury died on 12 September 2024 at the age of 72 after a prolonged illness. Yechury had been undergoing treatment for an acute respiratory tract infection since August 19 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.
He was born on August 12, 1952, in Chennai and started his political career in 1974 with his involvement in the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). He served as President of the JNU Students’ Union three times and later as the All-India President of the SFI. In 1984, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI(M), and in 1992, he ascended to the Politburo.
Sitaram Yechury served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal from 2005 to 2017. He succeeded Prakash Karat as the General Secretary of the CPI(M) in 2015 and was re-elected to the position in 2018 and 2022.