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Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on Thursday, September 12, 2024 following a prolonged illness, hospital and party sources said. He was 72.
Yechury had been in a critical condition for the last few days and was on respiratory support. The Marxist leader died at 3.05 pm, sources said.
The CPI-M had said earlier that Yechury was being treated for an acute respiratory tract infection at the ICU in AIIMS.
Yechury began his political career from the Jawaharlal Nehru University students union as a member of the Students Federation of India and went on to become a member of the CPI-M central committee in 1984. He was elected to the CPI-M politburo in 1992.
He served as a Rajya Sabha MP for 12 years, from 2005 to 2017. He was elected as the CPI-M's fifth general secretary at the 21st party congress in Visakhapatnam on April 19, 2015 and took over from Prakash Karat.
Yechury played a significant role in the formation of the INDIA bloc and was seen as among the political mentors of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.