Veteran Left leader and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury died yesterday 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 the Politburo, CPM’s top decision-making body, for over three decades, Mr Yechury was a member of Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017.