Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat.After days of speculation and in a nail biting finish rare for the CPI(M), politburo member Sitaram Yechury was on Sunday elected the new general secretary of the party on the last day of the party congress.
Consensus emerged on Yechury after the other frontrunner S Ramachandran Pillai withdrew from the race. Sources say outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat advised Pillai to do so after Yechury’s supporters in the central committee insisted on a vote. Sources say numbers were in Yechury’s favour.
The party has never had an election for the post of general secretary who has always been picked through consensus. The party constitution, however, does provide for a secret ballot in case of voting. Uncertainty lingered during the ongoing 21st party congress with both Yechury and Pillai refusing to rule themselves out overtly till the very end.
Sources say the West Bengal unit of the party led by Biman Bose threw its weight behind Yechury, even as a section of the Kerala unit supported Pillai.
Yechury becomes the fifth general secretary of the party. Karat served three terms as the party head.
Party leaders say Yechury, being 15 years younger than Pillai, always had the advantage of age, besides the fact that Pillai suffers the disadvantage of not being fluent in Hindi.
Meanwhile, one of the founding members of the CPI(M) V S Achuthanandan was dropped from the new 91-member central committee, and included as a special invitee. The 92 year old veteran leader was dropped due to the age factor. The party has an unwritten rule that discourages those above 80 to be part of the central committee.
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