35 Facts About Sitaram Yechury

Sitaram Yechury was an Indian Marxist politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, who was a member of the Politburo of the CPI since 1992.

Sitaram Yechury's father was an engineer in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.

Sitaram Yechury's mother was a government officer and lived in Kakinada till her death in 2021.

Sitaram Yechury grew up in Hyderabad, and studied at the All Saints High School, Hyderabad, till his tenth standard.

Sitaram Yechury joined Presidents Estate School, New Delhi, and achieved the All-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education Higher Secondary Examination.

Sitaram Yechury joined the Students' Federation of India in 1974.

Sitaram Yechury was arrested in 1975 during the Emergency while he was still a student at JNU.

Sitaram Yechury went underground for some time, organising resistance to the Emergency, before his arrest.

In 1978, Sitaram Yechury was elected as All-India Joint Secretary of SFI, and went on to become the All India President of SFI.

Sitaram Yechury was the first president of SFI who was not from Kerala or Bengal.

Sitaram Yechury was then elected to the Politburo at the Fourteenth Congress in 1992 and as the fifth General Secretary of CPI at the party's 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam on 19 April 2015.

Sitaram Yechury succeeded Prakash Karat, who had held the post for three consecutive terms, from 2005 to 2015.

Sitaram Yechury was again re-elected as General Secretary of CPI at the 22nd Party Congress held at Hyderabad in April 2018.

Sitaram Yechury was elected for a third term as General Secretary of CPI at the 23rd Party Congress held at Kannur, Kerala in April 2022.

Sitaram Yechury was considered to uphold the coalition-building legacy of former general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

Sitaram Yechury worked with P Chidambaram to draft the common minimum program for the United Front government in 1996 and had actively pursued the coalition-building process during the formation of the United Progressive Alliance government in 2004 and Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance in 2023.

Sitaram Yechury headed the party's international department, and the party used to depute him as fraternal delegate to the party conferences of most socialist countries.

Sitaram Yechury edited party's fortnightly newspaper People's Democracy for 20 years.

Sitaram Yechury was elected to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal in July 2005.

Sitaram Yechury was known for bringing several popular issues to the notice of parliament and for raising questions on important issues.

Sitaram Yechury justified disruptions in parliament by calling it a legitimate process in a democracy.

On 3 March 2015 during parliament session, Sitaram Yechury moved an amendment to President Pranab Mukherjee's address on the inaugural day of Parliament's budget session.

Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu stated that Sitaram Yechury's concern had been noted and requested him to not go ahead with the amendment as this was not a convention.

Sitaram Yechury said normally he would accept such a request, but he was pressing for the amendment as the government left no choice as even after 14 hours of debate, opposition was denied opportunity to seek clarification on the Prime Minister's reply.

Sitaram Yechury criticised the visit of the US president Barack Obama as the chief guest of the 2015 Republic Day parade.

Sitaram Yechury blamed the US for its hegemonic attitude; he said.

Sitaram Yechury was a staunch critic of abrogation of article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir.

On 12 September 2020, he along with Yogendra Yadav and others was named in the supplementary chargesheet by Delhi Police for their alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots over which Sitaram Yechury responded that Bharatiya Janata Party was misusing its power to target the opposition.

Sitaram Yechury was married to journalist Seema Chishti, who is the editor of The Wire, and formerly the Delhi editor of BBC Hindi Service.

Sitaram Yechury was the Resident Editor of The Indian Express, Delhi.

Sitaram Yechury said in a ScoopWhoop episode that his wife financially sustained him.

Sitaram Yechury was married before, to Indrani Mazumdar, daughter of Vina Mazumdar, and has a daughter and a son from this marriage.

Sitaram Yechury's daughter, Akhila Yechury, is a major in history and teaches at the University of Edinburgh and University of St Andrews.

Sitaram Yechury was admitted to the department of emergency medicine at AIIMS Delhi on 19 August 2024 and was put on respiratory support after his condition turned critical in September, according to a statement by the CPI.

Sitaram Yechury's body was donated to AIIMS for teaching and research purposes by his family.