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.
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.