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Family, friends and comrades bid final adieu to Sitaram Yechury

Family, friends, admirers, and comrades bid a final adieu to Sitaram Yechury, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary on September 14, as his mortal remains were brought to the party headquarters for people from all walks of life to pay their last respects. At 3:30 p.m., he left the party office for one last time, with a winding trail of mourners following in the wake of the funeral cortege, holding his photographs and raising slogans.

They accompanied his mortal remains till 14 Ashoka Road, which was the CPI(M) central committee’s office for many years. It was here, in 1984, that a 32-year-old Yechury first joined party’s highest decision-making body. His family then left for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where, in accordance with his wishes, his body was donated for medical research. Several leaders from various parties paid their tributes to Yechury.

Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong, Vietnam Ambassador Nguyen Thanh Hai, Palestinian Ambassador Adnan Abu Alhaija and former Nepal PM Madhav Kumar Nepal also came to express their condolences.

A host of academic luminaries, including historian Romilla Thapar, visited the party headquarters as did several members of civil society.

Yechury is the first CPI(M) general secretary to die in the saddle in what was his third and final term. His successor would have been elected at the next party Congress in April 2025, but his abrupt departure leaves the party with the tricky task of looking for an immediate replacement.

In the run-up to the party Congress, organisational elections are already going on at the district level. To prepare the political line and the organisational draft for the Congress, the party’s Polit Bureau is scheduled to meet on September 27 and 28, followed by the Central Committee meeting on September 29 and 30.