CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, a veteran of many political battles, spoke at length with JIST News Director Rahul Shrivastava. Yechury graduated in economics from Delhi's St. Stephen’s College, and then went on to do M.A Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he ventured into Leftist politics. He led a band of JNU students to Indira Gandhi's house and read out to her their demand seeking her resignation as JNU Chancellor. But he broke the mould and came to represent a new age breed of Left leaders who are pragmatic and not copy book Leftists. Now, in his third term as CPI(M) General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury is credited with raising the Opposition unity index to take on the might of the BJP. Though uniting the Opposition ranks may have been compelled by the Left's decline over the past 30 years.
Yechury, whose party had walked out of the Congress-led UPA-1 government in 2008, today believes that Rahul Gandhi has matured as a politician and is far more 'accommodative' of the allies. Yechury says he has not been in touch with Nitish Kumar ever since the JD(U) chief crossed over to the NDA. But he added that Nitish Kumar has set a 'new benchmark' through his frequent changing of political friends and foes. For now, Yechury does not expect Nitish Kumar or Chandrababu Naidu to flex their muscles in the NDA because he says both are busy in consolidating their positions in their home states, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Yet there's a message from Yechury to both Nitish and Chandrababu. Though he said it laughingly, Yechury compared Nitish and Chandrababu joining hands with Modi's BJP as walking into a 'Chakravyuh' or a trap.