Sitaram Yechury represented West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017. He spoke Bengali and loved interacting with politicians and people from the State. File.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who passed away in Delhi on Tuesday left an indelible mark in West Bengal politics by bringing two politically divergent forces the Left parties and the Congress together, on one platform, to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress.

The 2016 Assembly polls in West Bengal witnessed an electoral understanding between the CPI(M) led Left Front and Congress against the Trinamool Congress government. Sitaram Yechury, who was general secretary of the party then, was instrumental in bringing both parties together.

While the alliance failed to topple the Trinamool Congress government, it changed Left politics in West Bengal forever, as the CPI(M) emerged as a more practical and accommodating political force, setting aside decades of political animosity with the Congress.

Enduring alliance

A couple of years later, in 2018, the CPI(M) general secretary faced stiff opposition from his party’s central committee, rejecting his proposal for an alliance with Congress. Despite the opposition, the West Bengal unit of the party supported Sitaram Yechury, and the electoral understanding with Congress has continued till today, and both parties fought the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together.

“Sitaram’s contribution is that one can only break the binary of the BJP and Trinamool Congress by using the left alternative. It can be done by uniting all left and democratic forces, including the Congress,” CPI(M) West Bengal State Secretary Md. Salim said.

Mr. Salim added that Sitaram Yechury’s favourite line was that the Left in India cannot survive without the revival of the CPI(M) in West Bengal.

Veteran Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said that with Sitaram Yechury at the helm, the Congress realised that it could work with the CPI(M) leadership. Mr. Bhattacharya, who has represented West Bengal in the Upper House, added that there have always been two views in the Congress party whether the party should go with the Trinamool Congress or with the CPI(M) and it was because of Mr. Yechury that an alliance between the Congress and CPI(M) was formed.

Sitaram Yechury represented West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017. He spoke Bengali and loved interacting with politicians and people from the State.

During his media interactions in West Bengal, the CPI(M) general secretary would refer to the “competitive communalism” of both the Trinamool Congress and BJP in promoting religious events like Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti, often resulting in communal tensions.

Steadfast optimism

Despite failing to register much electoral success, the CPI(M) general secretary, speaking at a press conference in June 2024, expressed the hope that the CPI(M) would break the Trinamool-BJP binary in West Bengal by continuing to fight for the people’s rights and livelihood.

Reflecting on the CPI(M)’s electoral performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Yechury was hopeful that a new party leadership was emerging in the State.

“In Bengal, our party campaigned very well, irrespective of what the results were. Owing to our young leaders, a new kind of party is being formed in Bengal, which will benefit both the State as well as the country,” he had said at WB CPI(M) headquarters.

Veteran Left leader and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury died this afternoon. He was 72 and was undergoing treatment for respiratory ailments at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The CPM leader was admitted to the emergency ward of AIIMS on August 19 and later shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He was suffering from a pneumonia-like infection, but doctors had not disclosed the exact nature of the ailment. Mr Yechury recently underwent cataract surgery.

A member of CPM’s top decision-making body Politburo for over three decades, Mr Yechury was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2005 to 2017.

An alumnus of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Yechury started his political career with the Students’ Federation of India and joined the CPIM in 1975. He was pursuing his doctorate in Economics from JNU when the Indira Gandhi government imposed the Emergency in 1975 and he was arrested along with many other leaders who would later play a key role in national politics. His PhD remained incomplete.

Mr Yechury was elected president of the JNU Student’s Union thrice in a year after he was out of jail. It was during this time that he also met Prakash Karat, who would remain a lifelong comrade.

In 1992, he was elected as a Politburo member. Four years later, he was among the leaders who played a key role in drafting a Common Minimum Programme for the United Front government. Mr Yechury also played a significant role in forging of the ruling coalition for the UPA government in 2004.

Expressing his condolences, Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, described him as a “friend” and a “protector of the Idea of India”. “Sitaram Yechury ji was a friend. A protector of the Idea of India with a deep understanding of our country. I will miss the long discussions we used to have. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, and followers in this hour of grief.”

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said he was “deeply saddened” by the passing of Sitaram Yechury. “His contributions to public life will always be remembered. Heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones during this difficult time. Om Shanti,” Mr Gadkari said in a post on X.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also expressed her condolences. “Sad to know that Sri Sitaram Yechury has passed away. I knew the veteran parliamentarian that he was and his demise will be a loss for the national politics. I express my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,” she said in a post on X.