Weeks before the West Bengal Assembly elections, tennis icon Leander Paes joined the BJP on Tuesday. Paes joined the party in the presence of Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Sukanta Majumdar among others during a programme held at BJP headquarters in New Delhi.
According to Majumdar, it has not yet been decided if Paes would be given a ticket in the Assembly elections or if he will be taking part in the upcoming campaigns. “As of now the party has not decided his role,” said Majumdar.
Last week, the tennis star had met BJP national president Nitin Nabin, who was on a two-day visit to Kolkata, in the presence of MP and BJP state president Shamik Bhattacharya, setting off speculation about him joining the party.
“As a true ‘son of Bengal’, Paes reinforces the narrative that true Bengali pride thrives seamlessly within a national vision of development. He brings unparalleled star power and cross-sectional credibility, perfectly suited to resonate with the youth, urban voters and sports enthusiasts of West Bengal,” said a senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.
“He is proudly a ‘Kolkatar chele’ (a boy from Kolkata) whose early life in Bengal shaped his immense passion, unyielding discipline and longevity as an international athlete,” the senior BJP leader added.
According to the party, Paes has deep and authentic local roots in Bengal. “His mother, Jennifer Paes, is a descendant of the legendary Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, cementing his profound familial and cultural connection to the state,” added the leader.
Paes’s switch to BJP comes after a five-year long association with the Trinamool Congress, which started in October 2021. During his joining, Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had described him as a “younger brother”. He had campaigned for the party during the Goa elections in 2022. He did not contest the elections. He was left out of the party’s 69-member Goa state committee announced in January 2022.
Achievements & accolades
Born as Leander Adrian Paes on 17 June 1973 in Calcutta in a Christian family, he studied at La Martiniere Calcutta, Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School and at St. Xavier’s College.
His father, Vece Paes, was a field hockey player of Goan Catholic descent and mother, Jennifer Paes, was a Bengali basketball player from Calcutta.
Paes has won eight men’s doubles and 10 mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. He holds a career Grand Slam in men’s doubles and mixed doubles which makes him one of only three men in the Open Era to achieve this distinction. He has won the rare men’s/mixed double at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships.
Paes, along with Mahesh Bhupathi were the first pair in Open Era history to reach the men’s doubles finals of all four Grand Slams in the same calendar year (1999).
His mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2015 made him the second man (after Rod Laver) to win Wimbledon titles in three different decades. Paes has received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, India’s highest sporting honor, in 1996–97; the Arjuna Award in 1990; the Padma Shri award in 2001; and India’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan prize, in January 2014 for his outstanding contributions to tennis.
He has also won a bronze medal for India in men’s singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games making him the first Asian in Olympic history and the only Indian to date to win it . He competed in consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016 making him the only tennis player to compete in seven Olympic Games.
He is a former Davis Cup team captain, where in addition to his Davis Cup all-time doubles win record with 45 victories, he also has the fourth highest number of overall wins in Davis Cup history with 93 total victories across singles and doubles in a 30-year career for India with match wins in four different decades.
He played in World Team Tennis for the Washington Kastles. He was on the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 championship teams and was named Male MVP for 2009 and 2011. Paes retired from professional tennis in 2020, following his last Davis Cup tie in Croatia, with a record 1295 weeks spent ranked in the Top 100 in men’s doubles.
On 20 July 2024, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Paes became the first Asian man to be inducted into the hall.
Former ace tennis star Leander Paes speaks as he joins the BJP during a party joining program at party headquarters, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)
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