Tributes Pour In for Veteran Marxist Leader Sitaram Yechury

Veteran Marxist leader and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was honored with rich tributes at the CPI(M) headquarters, AKG Bhavan, after his passing due to a lung infection. Leaders across the political spectrum, along with international dignitaries and supporters, gathered to pay their respects before his body was donated to AIIMS.

Rich tributes were on Saturday paid to veteran Marxist leader and CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury at the party headquarters AKG Bhavan here, where his mortal remains were brought with chants of 'Lal Salaam' from his residence this morning.

Wrapped in the red flag of the CPI (M), Yechury's mortal remains were kept at the party office, where party leaders, including polit bureau members Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Pinarayi Vijayan and M A Baby, and others paid their tributes to the leader.

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi also reached the AKG Bhavan along with the other party leaders to pay her last respects to Yechury. She was accompanied by party leaders Jairam Ramesh, Rajeev Shukla and others. NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar, Sachin Pilot, Ramesh Chennithala, DMK leaders Udhayanidhi Stalin, TR Baalu, Dayanidhi Maran, RJD MP Manoj Jha, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Gopal Rai, CPI general secretary D Raja and party leader Annie Raja, and CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya were among the political leaders who paid their last respects at the CPI (M) headquarters. Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong, Ambassador of Vietnam Nguyen Thanh Hai, Palestinian Ambassador to India Adnan Abu Alhaija and former prime minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal, former CIC Wajahat Habibullah, eminent historian Romila Thapar also paid their last respects to the veteran leader. Hundreds of supporters, party leaders and members of the organisation gathered at the AKG Bhavan and a march was taken out while Yechury's body was being taken to AIIMS to be donated. His family were in the ambulance carrying the body, while supporters and CPI (M) leaders marched from the party office to Jantar Mantar, the streets once again drowning in chants of 'Lal Salaam'. The CPI(M) general secretary died on Thursday at a hospital here after battling a lung infection.

Yechury, 72, was in a critical condition for the last few days and on respiratory support while undergoing treatment for an acute respiratory tract infection at the ICU in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was admitted to the hospital on August 19.

On Friday, Yechury's body was taken to the Jawaharlal Nehru University from the AIIMS where hundreds of students and faculty members paid their last respects to him.

As a student at the JNU, Yechury was a part of the Students Federation of India (SFI), which he joined in 1974 and was arrested a few months later during the Emergency. He served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) thrice during 1977-78.

Later, the body was taken to his residence where senior CPI(M) leaders paid tributes to their comrade. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda had also paid his last respects to the leader at his residence on Friday evening.

Yechury is survived by his wife Seema Chishti and his two children Akhila and Danish. His elder son, Ashish Yechury, passed away due to Covid in 2021. Yechury was earlier married to Indrani Mazumdar.

(With inputs from agencies.)