NEW DELHI: The general secretary of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) Sitaram Yechury (72) passed away on Thursday after prolonged illness.
He was under treatment for acute respiratory tract infection at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for about two weeks. He was admitted to the hospital on August 19 due to pneumonia-like chest infection.
According to the sources, the veteran leader died at 3. 05 pm.
Yechury was active on social media despite his health conditions till August 29.
The leader, who started from the student's union of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as a member of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and went on to become a member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M) in 1984, got elected to the Politburo in 1992.
He served as a Rajya Sabha MP for 12 years, from 2005 to 2017.
He became the fifth general secretary of the CPI(M) at the 21st party congress in Visakhapatnam on April 19, 2015, and took over from Prakash Karat. He also played a significant role in the joint opposition's INDIA bloc.
His last message on the social media platform was on August 29 in which he paid condolences to noted lawyer AG Noorani.
On August 22, he posted a six-minute long video on 'X' after the demise of former chief minister of West Bengal and noted communist leader Buddhadev Bhattacharya.
(With inputs from PTI)