Left Veteran Sitaram Yechury Dies At 72 After Battling Respiratory Illness

New Delhi: Veteran Left leader and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury died this afternoon. He was 72 and was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The CPM leader was admitted to the emergency ward of AIIMS on August 19 and later shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 
The AIIMS said in a statement that Mr Yechury died at 3.05 pm today. The family has donated his body to AIIMS for teaching and research purposes. His body will be at AIIMS for two days now and then shifted to AKG Bhavan, the CPM headquarters, so that his admirers and comrades can pay their respects. Later, the body will be shifted to AIIMS again.
Mr Yechury is survived by his wife and senior journalist Seema Chishti, daughter Akhila and son Daanish. His 34-year-old son, Ashish Yechury, died of Covid in 2021. 
Left Veteran Sitaram Yechury Dies At 72 After Battling Respiratory Illness
Sitaram Yechury was CPIM general secretary since 2015

New Delhi: Veteran Left leader and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury died this afternoon. He was 72 and was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The CPM leader was admitted to the emergency ward of AIIMS on August 19 and later shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 
The AIIMS said in a statement that Mr Yechury died at 3.05 pm today. The family has donated his body to AIIMS for teaching and research purposes. His body will be at AIIMS for two days now and then shifted to AKG Bhavan, the CPM headquarters, so that his admirers and comrades can pay their respects. Later, the body will be shifted to AIIMS again.
Mr Yechury is survived by his wife and senior journalist Seema Chishti, daughter Akhila and son Daanish. His 34-year-old son, Ashish Yechury, died of Covid in 2021. 
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A member of CPM's top decision-making body Politburo for over three decades, Mr Yechury was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2005 to 2017.
An alumnus of Delhi's St Stephen's College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Yechury started his political career with the Students' Federation of India and joined the CPIM in 1975. He was pursuing his doctorate in Economics from JNU when the Indira Gandhi government imposed the Emergency in 1975 and he was arrested along with many other leaders who would later play a key role in national politics. His PhD remained incomplete.
Mr Yechury was elected president of the JNU Student's Union thrice in a year after he was out of jail. It was during this time that he also met Prakash Karat, who would remain a lifelong comrade.
In 1992, he was elected as a Politburo member. Four years later, he was among the leaders who played a key role in drafting a Common Minimum Programme for the United Front government. Mr Yechury also played a significant role in forging of the ruling coalition for the UPA government in 2004. The veteran leader had good relations with politicians cutting across party lines, making him one of the key leaders instrumental in forging alliances. More recently, he was one of the key leaders at the forefront when Opposition parties came together under the INDIA bloc.