Makineni Basavapunnaiah (b: 14 December 1914 – d: 12 April
1992) was an Indian Communist leader who was a member of Politbureau of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)). He was also the editor of the
central organ of CPI (M), People's Democracy magazine. He was a member of the
Rajya Sabha for 14 years from 3 April 1952 to 2 April 1966.
He was born to Shri Venkatappaiah in Toorpupalem village
near Repalle in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. He studied in his village,
Repalle and Machilipatnam. He was graduated from Andhra Christian College,
Guntur in 1936.
Makineni Basavapunnaiah was influenced by the upsurge in the
Indian Independence 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.
Within the Communist Party of India (CPI), he began working
as a district level activist in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. In 1943 he was elected
to the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee of the CPI and its secretariat. He
participated in the Telangana Rebellion. 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. He was one among the four member Indian
Communist delegation who met Joseph Stalin clandestinely in 1950 to receive his
advise on whether to continue the Telangana Rebellion or not.
In 1957, he represented the CPI at the international
conference of communist parties in Moscow, USSR. When the CPI was divided into
two in 1964 as a result of Sino-Soviet split of International Caommunist
Movement, he became a politburo member of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist), the splinter group of the Communist Party of India. He died in New
Delhi in 1992.
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