Sitaram Yechury was bridge between Cong & other parties in INDIA bloc: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi on Saturday paid tributes to the late Sitaram Yechury at his memorial ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Kharge said, Yechury had a great capacity to carry along everyone. He said that the late CPM leader had a great contribution in forging together the INDIA bloc.

The Congress president said Yechury had an endearing personality who was liked and respected by people across the party lines.

Kharge recalled his association with Yechury particularly during the period of the formation of the INDIA bloc.

Speaking on the occasion Rahul Gandhi described Yechury as a friend, who operated in the political system. “He was the person you could trust,” he remarked.

“When people look at politics from outside, it’s not easy to see the dynamics that take place inside the political system. It’s an unforgiving place, harsh place, uncomfortable place and it brings out mostly the worst in people. It’s rare that you see that politics brings out the best in a person. I saw Yechury from the first day I started my political journey. I observed him quite carefully. What I found was a person who was flexible, who listened, who even though he was on the opposite spectrum ideologically, had the ability to understand where we were coming from and he also allowed us to understand where he was coming from. He was a bridge in a sense between certainly, the Congress party and other parties in the INDIA bloc,” he said.

He said that Yechury was such a figure, who in the INDIA bloc certainly and the erstwhile UPA, held the architecture together.

“He held the architecture together, because he was flexible, because he listened and he didn’t have the common traits that a lot of politicians have- anger, aggression, arrogance. These things were missing and this is rare in our work; so, he was a friend,” Rahul Gandhi added.

“The only thing I could say is that he was a person you could trust. He was a person that you were sure, a hundred per cent sure that he wasn’t compromised. In today’s situation where there are pressures, it’s easy to get compromised; he was not compromised and whatever he did, he always did for the interest of our country,” he said.

–IANS

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