New Delhi, Sep 13 : The CPI-M announced that its late leader Sitaram Yechury's body will be kept at its headquarters, A.K. Gopalan Bhavan, on Saturday for public viewing and paying homage.

"The body of Comrade Sitaram Yechury will be kept at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) headquarters - A.K. Gopalan Bhavan - in Gole Market, New Delhi for public viewing and paying homage between 11.00 am and 3.00 pm on September 14," the CPI-M said in a statement.

It added that his body will then be taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where it will be donated for medical research as per his wishes.

Earlier, the party also said that Polit Bureau leaders along with other party and mass organisation comrades gathered at AIIMS as Sitaram Yechury's body was transported to Jawaharlal Nehru University for the students, faculty and others to pay homage.

Sitaram Yechury, who was undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit at the AIIMS here, passed away on Thursday. He was 72.

The CPI-M leader was admitted to AIIMS on August 19 for the treatment of a pneumonia-like chest infection.

He was being treated for acute respiratory tract infection and had been on respiratory support for some days now, as per a CPI-M statement on Tuesday, adding his condition was "critical but stable". A multidisciplinary team of doctors was tending to him, it added.

Yechury had succeeded Prakash Karat as the CPI-M chief in 2015.

The Left leader, who recently underwent cataract surgery, was a member of the CPI-M's Politburo, the top decision-making body, for over three decades. He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017.

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and several leaders, spanning the political spectrum, condoled his demise and paid tribute to his contributions.

/IANS