Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi paid tribute to late CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Saturday saying that he was a person “you could trust”. Gandhi said whatever Yechury did, he always did it 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,” the Congress leader said.

He also said Yechury’s “starting point” was India, his political ideology and convictions came next.

“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,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi also reminisced on the time the two leaders would talk about BJP or the RSS and said that the late leader wouldn’t say that they were doing this and that, just that “this is a danger to the country”.

Terming Sitaram Yechury a friend, Gandhi said that the CPI(M) leader 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, Rahul Gandhi said, adding that politics 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 also paid tribute to Sitaram Yechury and noted his “huge role” in the formation of 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.

On September 21, Sitaram Yechury passed away at AIIMS Delhi following a respiratory tract infection.

Yechury joined the CPI(M) in 1975 and 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.