'Comrade' Sitaram Yechury gets emotional send-off at CPI(M) headquarters in Delhi; mortal remains handed over to AIIMS

New Delhi: Chanting ‘Lal Salaam’ and ‘Long Live Sitaram’, comrades, friends and admirers said an emotional adieu to CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday, whose body was handed over to AIIMS for research and studies.

A large number of people marched with his body from AKG Bhavan, the party headquarters from where he operated before he breathed his last on Thursday, till Ashoka Road-Jantar Mantar intersection from where family and party leaders took the body to AIIMS. Later, Yechury’s family members signed the documents and donated the body to the hospital.

His journalist-wife Seema Chisti and children Akhila and Danish as well as CPI(M) workers Sree Narayana and PV Thomas, who closely worked with him accompanied the ambulance which carried Yechury’s body even as party senior leaders workers, students and youth among others marched on.

His body wrapped in party flag was brought from his Vasant Kunj residence to AKG Bhavan at 11 AM to enable the public to pay their homage to the communist leader, who is credited for playing a huge role in bringing the opposition together on a single platform.

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, with whom he shared a special relationship, were among the first to reach the CPI(M) office to pay homage to the 72-year-old leader. CPI General Secretary D Raja and his Forward Bloc counterpart G Deverajan were also there.

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh, eminent historian Romila Thapar, activist-academician JN Saibaba, RJD’s Manoj K Jha, AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were also among those who came to pay tributes.

Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and Sachin Pilot also paid their homage to Yechury while Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s son and minister Udhayanidhi also visited AKG Bhavan.