Sitaram Yechuri, one of the most familiar faces of the Marxist leadership is the fourth Telugu leader to achieve top positions in the left front and is said to road map merger of the two left entities - CPM and CPI. After Chandra Rajeswar Rao, P Sundaiyya and more recently Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, Sitaram Yechuri is among the Telugu people to occupy the significant positions in the communist movement.

Interestingly, Telugu people held top positions in the Marxist group from the beginning. The first general secretary P Sundarayya hails from Andhra Pradesh. Though Makineni Basavapunnaiah was not a party general secretary, he was political bureau member since 1950. Yechuri is now at the helm of affairs of the party, heading the team, is cast much in the mould of the late party leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

Yechury  in footsteps of Surjeet, who had played major roles in the coalition era governance first during the National Front government of V P Singh and the United Front government of 1996-97, during both of which the CPI(M) had supported from outside.