Makineni Basavapunnaiah

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Makineni Basavapunnaiah (b. December 14, 1914, d. April 12, 1992) was a prominent Indian Communist leader. At the time of his death, Comrade MB as he was affectionately known, was a member of Politbureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was also the editor of the central organ CPI(M), People's Democracy. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha for 14 years.

Makineni Basavapunnaiah belonged to the generation which became deeply influenced by the upsurge in the freedom movement in the early 1930s. He grew increasingly disillusioned by the policies of the then Congress leadership. In 1934 he joined the Communist Party of India.^[1]

[edit] As a Communist

Within the Communist Party, he began working as a district level activist in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. In 1943 he was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee of CPI and its secretariat. He was a leading figure in the Telangana rebellion along with stalwarts like P. Sundarayya. It was during this period that he emerged as one of the most prominent communist leaders in the country. At the Second Congress of the CPI in 1948, he was elected to the Central Committee of the party. In June 1950, was inducted into the party politburo.

In 1957, he represented CPI at the international conference of communist parties in Moscow.

When the CPI was divided in two in 1964, he became a leading figure and politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).^[1]