Re-elected to lead CPM, Yechury paints a picture of unity

Hyderabad: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) on Sunday unanimously re-elected Sitaram Yechury as its general secretary for another three years and he pledged to take steps to oust the government of prime minister Narendra Modi.

Yechury's re-election took place on the last day of the party's 22nd Congress here, CPM leader and former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar announced.

Sarkar said Yechury, 65, was elected by a 95-member new central committee, which also elected a 17-member new politburo (PB). Tapan Sen and Nilotpal Basu are the new faces in the PB. Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Sarkar, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala CPM leader S Ramachandran Pillai and West Bengal leader Biman Basu are among the members of the central committee.

"Yechury's election was unanimous. There was no contest," Sarkar told IANS. Yechury, who has been a member of the CPM since 1974 when he joined its student wing, was first elected the party general secretary in 2015.

Born in Chennai, Yechury was educated in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, a city where he has spent most of his life.

Re-elected to the top post a year ahead of the general elections, Yechury said the CPM's first goal was to oust the BJP-RSS Modi government.
He said they were mounting a challenge to the neo-liberal offensive that was aggressively unleashed by the Modi government and the RSS-BJP combine.

"We are declaring to the country and to the whole world that we will not allow secular democratic foundations of India to be torn asunder by these communal forces and India shall remain united," he said to thunderous applause by delegates gathered from across India. He said he would try to fulfil the immense responsibility of this office to the best of his capability.

"If there is one message that has gone out from this 22nd party congress, it is that the CPM has emerged united and determined to carry our the revolutionary task of putting forward alternative policy framework against ruling classes' policies," he said.

The Marxist leader claimed that all hopes of the 'class enemy' to see a weakened CPM had been belied.

Struggle to be strengthened

He said the party was now determined to change the course of India's destiny.

"We are embarking on a new course of intensified struggle in defence of our country and in the interest of our people, to change India for the better. Our main task today is to defeat the BJP-led government. All necessary measures are being undertaken as decided by the party congress."

Yechury said the party would not let India become a surrogate or junior partner to US imperialism.

The five-day conclave saw the groups led by Yechury and former general secretary Prakash Karat agreeing to amendments in the draft political resolution.

The resolution, while ruling out a political alliance with the Congress party, made it clear that it was ready for an understanding with that party. It reiterated that its first and foremost goal was to defeat the BJP.

The CPM, the largest party of the Left, has faced electoral reverses in West Bengal and more recently in Tripura. It is now in power in only Kerala.
In the newly-elected central committee, there are 20 new members. While 19 names were announced, one seat is kept vacant for a woman. The party also announced Rajinder Negi and Sanjay Parate as permanent invitees.

VS special invitee

The five special invitees are V S Achuthanandan, Mallu Swarajyam, Madan Ghosh, Paloli Mohd Kutty, A P Ramaiah, and K Varadharajan.

The five-member central control commission will be headed by Basudev Acharia. The members are P Rajendran, S Sridhar, G Ramulu and Bonani Biswas.

Several names were being discussed in party circles as Yechury's successor in the run up to the mega meet, which began here on April 18.

Former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, politburo member Brinda Karat and secretary B V Raghavulu were among the possible contenders, party sources had said.

Newly elected central committee

1. Sitaram Yechury
2. Prakash Karat
3. S Ramachandran Pillai
4. Biman Basu
5. Manik Sarkar
6. Brinda Karat (W)
7. Pinarayi Vijayan
8. Hannan Mollah
9. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan
10. M. A. Baby
11. Surjya Kanta Mishra
12. Mohd. Salim
13. Subhashini Ali (W)
14. B. V. Raghavulu
15. G. Ramakrishnan
16. Tapan Sen
17. Nilotpal Basu
18. A. K. Padmanabhan
19. Penumalli Madhu
20. V. Srinivasa Rao
21. M. A. Gafoor
22. Deben Bhattacharyya
23. Awadesh Kumar
24. Arun Mehta
25. Surender Mallik
26. Onkar Shad
27. Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami
28. Gopi Kant Baksi
29. G. V. Sreerama Reddy
30. P. Karunakaran
31. P.K. Sreemathi (W)
32. M.C. Josephine (W)
33. Jayarajan E. P.
34. Vaikom Viswan
35. T. M. Thomas Isaac
36. A Vijayaraghavan
37. K. K. Shailaja (W)
38. A K. Balan
39. Elamaram Kareem
40. Adam Narsayya Narayan
41. Mahendra Singh
42. Ali Kishore Patnaik
43. Basu Deo
44. Amra Ram
45. T.K. Rangarajan
46. U. Vasuki (W)
47. A Soundara Rajan
48. K. Balakrishnan
49. P. Sampath
50. Thammineni Veerabhadram
51. S. Veeraiah
52. Ch. Seetha Ramulu
53. Aghore Deb Barma
54. Bijan Dhar
55. Badal Choudhury
56. Rama Das (W)
57. Gautam Das
58. Hiralal Yadav
59. Shyamal Chakraborty
60. Mridul De
61. Rekha Goswami (W)
62. Nripen Chowdhury
63. Srideep Bhattacharya
64. Ramachandra Dome
65. Minoti Ghosh (W)
66. Anju Kar (W)
67. Hari Singh Kang
68. Jogendra Sharma
69. J. S. Majumdar
70. K. Hemalata (W)
71. Sudha Sundararaman (W)
72. Rajendra Sharma
73. Swadesh Dev Roye
74. Ashok Dhawale
75. S Punyavati (W)

New members

76. Suprakash Talukdar
77. Arun Kumar Mishra
78. K M Tiwari
79. K Radhakrishnan
80. M V Govindan Master
81. Jaswinder Singh
82. J P Gavit
83. G. Nagaiah
84. Tapan Chakravarty
85. Jiten Choudhury
86. Muralidharan
87. Arun Kumar
88. Vijoo Krishnan
89. Mariam Dhawale (W)
90. Rabin Deb
91. Abhas Roy Choudhury
92. Sujan Chakraborty
93. Amiyo Patra
94. Sukhwinder Singh Shekon
95. Vacant (Woman)

Permanent Invitees

1. Rajinder Negi (Secretary, Uttarakhand state committee)
2. Sanjay Parate (Secretary, Chattisgarh state committee)

Special Invitees

1. V. S. Achuthanandan
2. Mallu Swarajyam (W)
3. Madan Ghosh
4. Paloli Mohd. Kutty
5. P. Ramaiah
6. K. Varadharajan

Central control commission

1. Basudev Acharia
2. P. Rajendran
3. S. Sridhar
4. G Ramulu
5. Bonani Biswas (W)

17 member politburo

1. Sitaram Yechury
2. Prakash Karat
3. S Ramachandran Pillai
4. Biman Basu
5. Manik Sarkar
6. Brinda Karat (W)
7. Pinarayi Vijayan
8. Hannan Mollah
9. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan
10. M. A. Baby
11. Surjya Kanta Mishra
12. Mohd. Salim
13. Subhashini Ali (W)
14. B. V. Raghavulu
15. G. Ramakrishnan
16. Tapan Sen
17. Nilotpal Basu