Sitaram Yechury was the 'glue' that brought the INDIA bloc together, leaders of the alliance said on Saturday as they paid tributes to the CPI(M) general secretary, calling his death a loss for the opposition.

A condolence meeting for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary, who passed away on September 12 after battling a lung infection, was attended by leaders from the INDIA bloc parties, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav, among others.

Remembering Yechury as a “friend who operated in the political system”, Gandhi said he played the role of a bridge between the Congress and other parties in the INDIA bloc and the UPA.

He said he observed Yechury carefully since the beginning of his political career.

“And 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 said.

“He was a bridge, in a sense, between certainly the Congress party and other parties in the Indian government (during the UPA rule). There are people who are visible, and they are up front, you see them, and then there is the glue that is not visible, that is hidden, but is actually what holds the structure together,” Gandhi said.

“Mr Yechury was such a figure, who in the INDIA alliance certainly, and the last UPA alliance held the architecture together. And he held the architecture together because he was flexible, because he listened,” he said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge recalled the meetings the CPI(M) leader had held with Sonia Gandhi in shaping the INDIA bloc, and gave him the credit for bringing different parties together.

“He had a big role in the formation of the INDIA alliance… Some people tried to take the credit for the formation of the bloc, but the person who wanted the credit ran away,” he said.

He was apparently referring to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who left the India bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah recalled the time when the CPI(M) leader and the then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu declined the offer to take the prime ministerial post in the United Front government in 1996.

“I have a lot of complaints with this group (Left) as well. When we wanted to make the chief minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu the prime minister of India, this group did not agree. If Jyoti Basu had become the Prime Minister of India, I think India would not have been what it is today,” Abdullah said.

“If you really want to save India from these people who are dividing the country on the lines of religion, we have to think about how to get rid of them. I am a Muslim, am I an infiltrator? Am I Pakistani? I was born in India and will die here,” he said.

CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat remembered his contribution in bringing together the secular, democratic forces, and said he played an important role in bringing together the INDIA bloc.

“Comrade Sitaram has a big contribution in the formation of the INDIA bloc,” he said.

Karat said Yechury dreamed of a "better India - a socialist India".

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha, DMK’s Kanimozhi, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, JMM’s Mahua Maji, AAP’s Gopal Rai, CPI general secretary D Raja, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, RSP general secretary Manoj Bhattacharya, and All India Forward Bloc general secretary G Devarajan also spoke at the condolence meet, and remembered Yechury’s contributions towards strengthening democracy.

CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat presented the condolence resolution for Yechury and recalled his contributions to the Left movement in India from his youth, highlighting his "commitment" to Marxism.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinnarayi Vijayan remembered Yechury as a "Marxist ideologue par excellence, who had a sound knowledge of the Indian history, society, culture and polity." "He was able to bring leaders of different political parties together and played a seminal role in building the INDIA bloc," he said.

Economist Prabhat Patnaik, social activist Teesta Setalvad, and former editor-in-chief of The Hindu N Ram were also among the speakers.

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