Former Kerala Minister MA Baby elected as General Secretary of CPI(M)

Mariam Alexander Baby, commonly known as MA Baby, was a member of the Rajya Sabha of the CPI (M) from 1986 to 1998.

The party highlighted that the newly elected Central Committee has 20 per cent women members.

"The CPIM24th Party Congress has elected an 85-member Central Committee with one vacancy. The new Central Committee elected an 18-member Polit Bureau with Comrade M.A. Baby as the General Secretary. 20% of the Central Committee members are women," the party said in a post on X.

The position of party general secretary became vacant following Sitaram Yechury's death last year. Subsequently, Prakash Karat assumed the role of interim coordinator.

Yechury passed away on September 12 at AIIMS Hospital after suffering from a respiratory tract infection.

An affable leader with cross-party political connections, Sitaram Yechury was among the most prominent Left leaders in the country, known as much for his sharp and knowledgeable parliamentary interventions as for his role in giving shape to pragmatic alliances to forge his party's political objectives.

The most popular among CPI-M leaders, Yechury had clout in national politics, which continued despite the receding fortunes of his own party.

Sitaram Yechury joined the CPI(M) in 1975. He was arrested during the emergency for his political activities. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Party in 1985 at the 12th Congress and he remained in the Central Committee afterwards.

Yechury was elected to the Central Secretariat in 1989 and to the Polit Bureau in 1992 at the 14th Congress of the Party. He was elected as the General Secretary of the CPI(M) at the 21st Congress in 2015, a position he continued till his death.

Sitaram Yechury was a member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms from 2005 to 2017. He served as the leader of the CPI(M) group and was an effective parliamentarian. He was given the best parliamentarian award in 2017.