Sitaram Yechury is new general secretary of CPI-M

NEW DELHI|KOLKATA: Senior Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday replaced Prakash Karat as the general secretary of CPM. Though it was a “unanimous” decision by the party’s all powerful central committee, the 21-st party congress had its unusual quota of drama with S Ramachandran Pillai emerging as a contender. Finally, the staunch support of Bengal and Tripura units seem to have seen Yechury through to the top post as the party meet concluded at Vishakhapatnam.

Though 77-year-old Pillai was supposed to be Karat’s chosen candidate and he had the support of many leaders from the Kerala unit, the balance tilted as Bengal and Tripura units and their heavyweight leaders favoured Yechury.

Bengal leaders had for long blamed Karat for the party’s dismal failure in the state, insisting that Karat’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA government over the nuclear deal cemented the ties between Trinamool Congress and Congress leading to CPM’s defeat. “Yechuri knows Bengal well. He can also speak and understand Bengali.

Naturally, Bengal will gain following Yechuri’s election as the new party general secretary,” Nirupam Sen, the ailing CPM polit bureau member who was dropped from the party’s apex body told ET.

The first leader to openly support Yechury was Kerala veteran VS Achuthanandan. He had a short meeting with Yechury on Saturday and wished to see Yechury as the next general secretary. As the meetings progressed on Sunday, it became clear that Pillai wanted to avoid a contest and Yechury emerged as a consensus candidate.

Meanwhile, Sen and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had urged the central leadership to drop them from party bodies as they were not keeping well.

Expelled CPM leader Rezzak Mollah was also happy over the change in leadership. “Induction of Mohammed Salim and Hannan Mollah into the polit bureau is a good move. I have been demanding the representation of Muslim and SC/ST leaders in party bodies,” Mollah told ET.