Sitaram Yechury

Sitaram Yechury సీతారాం యేచూరి
Sitaram Yechury in Kollam, Kerala during Assembly election 2011
Politburo Member, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Personal details
Born	August 12, 1952 (1952-08-12) Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Political party	Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Sitaram Yechury (Telugu: సీతారాం యేచూరి) (born August 12, 1952) is an Indian politician and one of the most prominent communist leaders in the country. He is a senior member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the party's Parliamentary group leader.

Political career

Yechury joined the Students Federation of India (SFI) in 1974. A year later, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In 1975, he completed his M.A., first class, in Economics, from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. Subsequently, he joined JNU for a Ph.D. degree which he could not complete due to his arrest during The Emergency.

He was underground for some time, organising resistance to the Emergency, before his arrest in 1975. After the Emergency, he was elected as President of the JNU Students' Union thrice during one year (1977–78). He is the only JNU president to hold this unique distinction.

In 1978, he was elected as All India Joint Secretary of SFI, and went on the become the All India President of SFI. He left SFI in 1986. In 1984, he was invited to the Central Committee of the CPI(M). He was elected to the Central Committee in the CPI(M) XII Congress in 1985, to the Central Secretariat at the Thirteenth Congress in 1988 and to the Politburo at the Fourteenth Congress in 1992.

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

He is one of the most prolific Left writers in the country, having authored many books. His book, Saffron Brigade written after the demolition of Babri Masjid is a best-selling Left work. An avid writer, he is a columnist with Hindustan Times, a widely circulated daily.

A widely travelled person, Yechury is one of the few Indian leaders to have met legendary figures like Fidel Castro, Yasir Arafat and Nelson Mandela more than once. He has the rare distinction of having addressed the British parliament and top British and American universities as a communist leader. He has been invited to address the students of IIM, Calcutta. Yechury has represented his party at many international forums and communist conferences. Recently, he played a pivotal role in convincing the Nepali Maoists to embrace parliamentary democracy.

Personal life

Yechury is married to journalist Seema Chisti, formerly the Delhi editor of BBC Hindi Service, she is presently the Resident Editor of Indian Express, Delhi. He has a daughter and a son from his first marriage.