Samar Mukherjee The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays respectful homage to the memory of Comrade Samar Mukherjee, veteran leader of the Party and former member of the Polit Bureau. Samar Mukherjee joined the Party in 1940 and for the next six and a half decades he served the working class movement with rare distinction. Sarmar Mukherjee was one of the builders of the Communist Party in West Bengal. It was under his leadership that the refugee movement was built up which played a significant role in expanding the influence of the Communist Party in West Bengal. Samar Mukherjee became a member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M) in 1966 and was elected to the Polit Bureau in 1978. He was elected chairman of the Central Control Commission at the 14th Congress of the Party. Samar Mukherjee led the CITU as its general secretary from 1983 to 1991. He played a leading role in the historic railway workers strike in 1974. Apart from being an MLA, he was elected to the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms and to the Rajya Sabha for two terms. He served as the leader of the CPI(M) group in parliament. Samar Mukherjee led an exemplary life and donated most of his salaries and allowances as a parliamentarian to the Party. The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) pledges to carry forward his work and example. R Umanath The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays homage to the memory of Comrade R Umanath, former member of the Polit Bureau and veteran leader of the working class movement. Umanath began his political activity as a young student by participating in the freedom struggle. He joined the Communist Party in 1939 while he was a student. R Umanath was a member of the Central Committee of the Party from 1978 to 2012 and the Polit Bureau from 1998 to 2008. Umanath was one of the founders of the CITU and served as the national vice president of the CITU till 2010. Comrade Umanath served as a member of the Lok Sabha in 1962 and 1967. Later he was elected to the state legislature for two terms. Umanath was convicted along with other Communist leaders in the Madras Conspiracy case and jailed for two and a half years. He spent altogether nine and half years in jail both before and after independence. He also spent seven years underground. A brilliant speaker, he was an effective propagator of the Party’s message to the people. As a member of the Polit Bureau and the Central Committee, Umanath made a notable contribution to the evolution of the Party’s ideological and political line. His life and example will always be cherished. N Varadarajan The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays tribute to the memory of Comrade N. Varadarajan, veteran leader of the Party and former member of the Central Committee. N Varadarajan began his life as a mill worker and rose to be one of the prominent leaders of the Communist Party in Tamilnadu. He made a big contribution to the working class movement. N Varadarajan was the secretary of Tamilnadu state committee of the Party from 2002 to 2010. He was a member of the Central Committee from 1995 till 2012. N Varadarajan was elected thrice as a member of the Tamilnadu state legislative assembly. Benoy Konar The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays homage to the memory of Comrade Benoy Konar, veteran leader of the Party and the peasant movement. Benoy Konar joined the Party in 1948 and got involved in organising the peasant movement in Burdwan. He led various struggles of the agricultural workers and poor peasants. He served as the general secretary and president of the state Kisan Sabha and later became the national president of the All India Kisan Sabha. He made an immense contribution to developing the revolutionary peasant movement in West Bengal. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Party in 1995 and became chairman of the Central Control Commission at the 20th Congress of the Party. He was a member of the West Bengal legislative assembly from Memari constituency thrice. Comrade Benoy Konar had to face police repression. He was jailed under a number of false cases and spent six years and nine months in prison. Benoy Konar was known for his firm ideological commitment to Marxism and led an exemplary life marked by simplicity. Shyamali Gupta The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays tributes to the memory of Shyamali Gupta, member of the Central Committee of the Party and leader of the democratic women’s movement. Shyamali Gupta joined the Communist Party in 1963. She was elected general secretary Ganatantrik Mahila Samiti in 1983. She played an important role in building the women’s organisation in West Bengal. She became the All India general secretary of the AIDWA in 1990. She was elected as the president of the AIDWA in 2010. She became a member of the West Bengal State Committee in 1985 and was a member of the state secretariat from 2010. She was elected to the Central Committe of the CPI(M) in 2002. KL Bajaj The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays respects to the memory of Comrade K L Bajaj, member of the Central Committee of the Party and a veteran trade union leader of Maharashtra. Bajaj joined the CPI(M) in 1964. He had participated in the movement for the liberation of Goa from Portuguese occupation and was arrested. He was elected secretary of the Maharashtra state committee of the CITU in 1978. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Party in 2008. KL Bajaj was imprisoned several times during his five decades old political life. Ananda Pathak The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays homage to the memory of Comrade Ananda Pathak, veteran leader of the Party and former member of the Central Committee. Ananda Pathak played a key role in the building of the Party and the working class movement in the Darjeelng district since the 1940s. He was a member of the Lok Sabha. He served as a member of the West Bengal state committee for a long time. Hari Ram Chauhan The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) mourns the passing away of Comrade Hari Ram Chauhan, former Member of the Central Committee who died on April 11, 2015. Hari Ram Chauhan joined the Communist Party in 1951. He led many kisan struggles in Alwar district of Rajasthan. He served as a member of the legislative assembly for a term beginning 1962. Comrade Hari Ram Chauhan served as the secretary of the Rajasthan state committee for a long period. He remained a member of the Central Committee till 2008. Lakshmi Sahgal The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays tribute to the memory of Capt. Lakshmi Sahgal, leader of the Rani Jhansi regiment of the INA and and veteran leader of the Party. Members & Former Members of State Committees The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays homage to the memory of the following members and formers members of the state committees of the Party. West Bengal: Chandi Pal, Kali Ghosh, Mrinal Das, Amitava Basu, Arati Dasgupta, Binode Das and Bireswar Lahiri and Pitabasan Das. Kerala: PK Chandranandan, K Ummar Master and P Govinda Pillai Tripura: Anil Sarkar, Chitta Chanda, Gopesh Debnath, Surendra Pal, Shrish Bhattacharjee and Brajmohan Jamatia Andhra Pradesh & Telengana: Alluru Satyanayaraya, Y Radhakrishna Murthy, Davanam Chenchiah, V Srihari, TP Bhanuraju and Narra Raghava Reddy. Assam: Abdul Karim Bhuyan, Sasha Kamal Handique and Achyut Deka, Assam Maharashtra: Suman Sanzgiri and PR Menon Tamilnadu: PA Sekar, M Kumar Uttar Pradesh: Daulat Ram Bihar: Vasudeo Singh Himachal Pradesh: Kapoor Singh Sipehiya Delhi: Mohanlal and Vijendra Sharma Punjab: Rachpal Singh Rajasthan: Krishna Kant Verma and Ram Pratap Syag C.C. Units: Kitty Menon & Dipankar Mukherjee Fraternal Parties The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays tribute to the memory of Satpal Dang, Parvathi Krishnan,Jagannath Sarkar and CK Chandrappan, leaders of the Communist Party of India. International The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays tributes to the memory: Vo Nguyen Giap, veteran leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam and brilliant commander of the armed forces who fought for the liberation and reunification of Vietnam. Nelson Mandela, leader of the South African liberation struggle and former president of South Africa. He was an icon for all the people of the world struggling for freedom, democracy and human dignity. Hugo Chavez Frías, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and leader of the Bolivarian revolutionary movement. Sobho Gianchandani, a veteran of the Communist movement in Pakistan Eric Hobsbawm, noted Marxist historian The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pays homage to the memory of: AK Hangal, well known actor and Communist HR Anathamurthy, prominent Kannada writer and social activist Rajendra Yadav, Progressive Hindi writer Sukumari Bhattacharjee, Indologist and Left intellectual Bipan Chandra, Left wing historian