Mumbai, Apr 27: Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has been nominated by the government to the Rajya Sabha along with along with veteran actor Rekha and business leader Anu Aga. Tendulkar, who turned 39 a few days ago, will be the first active cricketer to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Tendulkar’s nomination has already been approved by President Pratibha Patil. The batting maestro, who is in New Delhi for Mumbai Indians’ game against the Delhi Daredevils, met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday morning and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later in the day. He was accompanied by his wife, Anjali, on these visits.
The master batsman’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha was largely welcomed by political and other prominent personalities. “It is good. Government should nominate people like Sachin Tendulkar and other eminent persons from different walks of life,” CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters in Chennai on the sidelines of a party function.
“Sachin will do a great job if he becomes an MP in the Rajya Sabha. We need honest people like him,” footballer Baichung Bhutia said.
As a cricketer, Tendulkar has had an outstanding career and has set several benchmarks in modern-day batting. He is the leading run-getter in international cricket with more than 33,000 runs in all formats of the game. He is the first batsman to break the 200-run barrier in ODI cricket. And in March this year, he also became the first batsman to score 100 international centuries.
While there have been several film personalities who have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha in the past, Tendulkar is the first sports personality to be nominated to the Upper House. Film personalities who were nominated in the past include, Hema Malini, Vyjayantimala, Nargis Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar and Sivaji Ganesan.
