"Whatever he did was always in interest of country": LoP Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to late CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury

New Delhi [India], September 28 (ANI): Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday paid tribute to late CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury and said that whatever the latter did, was always in the interest of the country.
"He was a person you could trust, he was a person you are sure - 100 per cent sure, that he wasn't compromised in today's situation. Whatever he did, he always did it in the interest of the country. Maybe my brothers on the Left might not like it, but every time his starting point was India and after that his political ideology and his political convictions. Whenever he would speak to me about the BJP and RSS, he didn't say that they were doing this and that, he used to say that look, this is a danger to the country," Rahul Gandhi said.
Calling Sitaram Yechury a friend, Rahul Gandhi said that he was very flexible in politics.
"For me, Sitaram Yechury was a friend, who operated in the political system. When people look at politics from outside, it's not easy to see the dynamics that plays inside. It brings out the worst in people, it's rarely you see the best come out in people through politics. He was flexible, he was on the opposite spectrum of the ideology. He was also close to my mother, they were better friends than he was to me," he added.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge paid tribute to Sitaram Yechury and said that he played a huge role in the INDIA bloc.
"Person who believed in parliamentary democracy, person who believed in equality. Sitaram ji used to say Kharge ji is our comrade," Kharge said.
Earlier on September 21, Sitaram Yechury passed away at AIIMS Delhi after suffering from a respiratory tract infection.
Sitaram Yechury joined the CPI(M) in 1975. He was arrested during the emergency for his political activities. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Party in 1985 at the 12th Congress, and he remained in the Central Committee till now.
Yechury was elected to the Central Secretariat in 1989 and to the Polit Bureau in 1992 at the 14th Congress of the Party. He was elected as the General Secretary of the CPI(M) at the 21st Congress in 2015, a position he continued until now.
Sitaram Yechury was a member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms from 2005 to 2017. He served as the leader of the CPI(M) group and was an effective parliamentarian. He was given the best parliamentarian award in 2017. (ANI)