Bhubaneswar: Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury today breathed his last in New Delhi. He was 72.

Yechury was suffering from acute respiratory tract infection and undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-New Delhi.

 He was on respiratory support in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the premier health institute. A multi-disciplinary team of doctors was monitoring the health condition of the CPI (M) leader.

“Comrade Sitaram Yechury breathed his last at 3.03 pm today while undergoing treatment at AIIMS-New Delhi,” said the CPI (M) in a Twitter (X) post.

Yechury was a Rajya Sabha MP for two terms from 2005 to 2017. He had succeeded Prakash Karat as the General Secretary of CPM in 2015.

Yechury was re-elected as the General Secretary of CPI (M) twice in 2018 and 2022.

Born on August 12, 1952 in Chennai, Yechury spent his formative years in Hyderabad and Delhi.

Yechury’s political journey began in 1974 when he joined the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). He was elected as the president of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union thrice.

The veteran Left leader served as a member of CPM Politburo over three decades.