New Delhi: C.P.M. General Secretary Sitaram Yechury (72) passed away. Yechury, who is also a former Rajya Sabha member, was admitted to the emergency department of AIIMS on August 19 following high fever and a chest infection. His health worsened due to pneumonia.
Sitaram Yechury was born on August 12, 1952 in Chennai to Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury and Kalpakam Yechury, natives of Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. His father was an engineer in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation. Mother is a government official.
Yechury, who shone as a student leader of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), entered public work through SFI. Yechury became a part of SFI in JNU in 1974, just before the Emergency. He was arrested in 1975 during the Emergency. During 1977-78, he was president of JNU Students Union three times.
He played a critical role in drafting the Common Minimum Program of the United Front government in 1996 and in building the coalition for the formation of the UPA government in 2004.
