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In April 2023, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met communist party leader Sitaram Yechury at the CPI(M) headquarters in Delhi. After a brief meeting, the two leaders, part of a group, emerged from the iconic Ajoy Bhawan in Delhi\u2019s Gole Market only to be greeted by a battery of reporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI have not seen so many people in this otherwise deserted building for decades,\u201d quipped Yechury, the CPI(M) general secretary before briefing journalists about what transpired in the meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yechury, who passed away at 72 on Thursday after a brief illness, was arguably one of the prominent leaders behind stitching up an opposition alliance \u2013 INDIA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nitish Kumar was then meeting opposition leaders for an alliance against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It\u2019s another matter that Kumar eventually switched sides and joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yechury, who was undergoing treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi, is survived by his wife, Seema Chishti, daughter Akhila and son Daanish. His eldest son, Ashish Yechury, passed away due to COVID-19 in November 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Many say Yechury was not a mass leader, yet he was known for winning friends and influencing people across the political aisle. CPI-M doesn\u2019t have many leaders in Parliament, yet Yechury has remained a prominent face of opposition for many years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While his friendship with the Congress leaders is known, Yechury was a rare communist leader who would also go well with BJP leaders. In 2022, a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yechury laughing together at an all-party meeting had become a thing on social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHe was also my friend with whom I had several interactions. I will always recall my interactions with him,\u201d Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in a post on X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yechury\u2019s camaraderie across party lines is not new. He was a key figure in coalition-building efforts in national politics in the 1990s when different Janata factions came together to keep the Congress party out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Born on August 12, 1952, in the then-Madras, Yechury received his primary education in Hyderabad before shifting to Delhi in 1969. He completed his Bachelor’s from Delhi University\u2019s St Stephen\u2019s College before joining Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for his master’s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Soon, Yechury entered politics by joining the Students\u2019 Federation of India (SFI) \u2014 the Left\u2019s student wing \u2013 in 1974. A year later, he became member of CPI(M). He indulged in student politics at JNU when the veteran BJP leader late Arun Jaitley was a rising young leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yechury gave up his plans to pursue a PhD and instead was part of the resistance movement against Emergency in 1975. Not many would know that he was among the first student leaders who demanded the resignation of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was arrested during the Emergency along with Jaitley and Prakash Karat, to name a few.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yechury was elected as JNUSU president thrice between 1977-78 in the post-Emergency days. It was under his presidency that JNUSU forced Indira Gandhi to resign as the University\u2019s chancellor in October 1977.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In 1978, Yechury became SFI\u2019s All India Joint secretary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Many say that Yechury\u2019s glory days were when he was a student leader in JNU. He shot to fame again in 2004 by playing a key negotiating role when Left parties backed the first UPA government in May 2004 and pressured the Congress-led regime into policy-making.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He also played a critical role in the talks with the government on the Indo-US nuclear deal, which led to the Left parties withdrawing support to the UPA-I government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n