Prakash Karat was on 9 April 2012 (Monday) re-elected general secretary for the third consecutive term at the party's 20th Congress, which concluded in Kozhikode.64-year-old Karat was elected as general secretary in 2005 at the New Delhi Congress for the first time and then again at Coimbatore for the second term.Prakash Karat
Born-7 February 1948
Letpadan, Burma
Political party-Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Spouse(s)-Brinda Karat
Residence-New Delhi, India
He was born in Letpadan, Burma on February 7, 1948. His father worked in the Burma Railways, where he had sought employment during the British Raj. Prakash Karat is a Malayali, as his family hailed from Elappully, Palakkad, Kerala. Prakash Karat lived in Palakkad till the age of five before returning to Burma where he lived with his family till the age of nine, when his family left Burma for good in 1957. Karat studied in the Madras Christian College School in Chennai. On finishing school, he won the first prize in an all India essay competition on the Tokyo Olympics. He was sent on a ten day visit to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 as a result. He went to the Madras Christian College as an undergraduate student in Economics, where he won the prize for the best all round student on graduation. He got a scholarship to Britain’s University of Edinburgh, for a Masters degree in politics. Read more