Sitaram Yechury, a prominent voice of the Left in Parliament, was on Friday unanimously elected to the powerful post of general secretary of CPI-M, and immediately set out two major tasks - to work for unity of Left and democratic forces and fight against "communal" agenda of Hindutva forces.
62-year-old Yechury takes over from Prakash Karat, whose nine-year stint saw CPI-M's fortunes dwindle both in Lok Sabha from 44 in 2004 to nine in 2014 as also the West Bengal Assembly where the party was routed by Trinamool Congress in 2011, ending the Left party's 34-year rule in the state.
Yechury was unanimously elected to the top post at the party's 21st national congress which concluded on Friday and becomes the fifth person to hold the post after P Sunderayya, EMS Namboodripad, Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Karat.
Yechury's name for the post was proposed by Karat and seconded by S Ramachandran Pillai, also a frontrunner for the top slot.
The party also elected 91 members of its central committee and a 16-member politburo.
Addressing the CPI(M) meet here after his election, Yechury said one of the immediate tasks before the party was the fight against "communal agenda of the Hindutva forces" and Modi government's policies.
Castigating the "communal agenda, neo-liberal policies and move towards dismantling democratic pillars" of the Modi government, he said the party has to effectively combat these three forces, lest it would become "Trishul" and pierce into the heart of the nation.
"Our task is to strengthen unity of Left and democratic forces. The unmistakable conclusion of this congress is that the crisis in capitalism continues to deepen in the world.
"There is no alternative except to strengthen the struggle for socialism. If there is any future for human civilisation, that future lies in socialism," he said.
Yechury also spoke about merger of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India.
"Merger is still on cards. But, the first issue is to strengthen our party, based on which work for the unity of Left forces is to be undertaken, and again based on which mobilising Left and democratic forces together will be done," Yechury told reporters after his elevation.
The party has called for concerted opposition to the Modi government's economic policies and its "Hindutva-oriented social and educational policies".
Soft-spoken, suave and known to be pragmatic, Yechury played a critical role in the talks with the government on the Indo-US nuclear deal that led to the Left parties withdrawing support to the UPA-I government in July, 2008, largely because Karat, a stickler to dogma, was stubborn.
There are analysts who feel that the Left parties including the CPI(M) pushed themselves into a corner, from which it has not been able to recover in successive elections.
Yechury joined the Students Federation of India (SFI) in 1974 and became a member of the party the very next year.
Born on August 12, 1952, Yechury completed school education from Hyderabad and moved to Delhi to complete his graduation in Economics from St Stephen's College, standing first class first.
He did his post-graduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University again with a first class, but could not complete his Ph.D degree due to his arrest during Emergency.
92-year-old V S Achuthanandan, one of the founding members of the CPI(M), was dropped from the new 91-member central committee, and included as a special invitee. The party discourages those above 80 to be part of the central committee.