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Ahead of the elections successful West Bengal, Indian tennis fable Leander Paes connected Tuesday (March 31, 2026) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) astatine the enactment headquarters.
Assembly predetermination updates connected March 31, 2026
Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Sukanta Majumdar, on with MP Anil Baluni, were contiguous connected the occasion.
In October 2021, anterior to the Goa Assembly polls, Mr. Paes had joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) successful the beingness of enactment main and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Mr. Paes, calved successful Kolkata successful 1973, is simply a descendant of 19th-century Bengali writer and dramatist Michael Madhusudan Dutt connected his maternal side.
One of India’s astir palmy tennis players, Mr. Paes has won 18 Grand Slam titles (eight successful men’s doubles and 10 successful mixed doubles) and bagged a bronze medal successful singles astatine the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
He was awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (then known arsenic the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna) successful designation of his winning the Olympics medal. In 1990, helium received the Arjuna Award.
In 2001, Mr. Paes was honoured with the Padma Shri alongside his longtime doubles spouse Mahesh Bhupathi. He was aboriginal conferred India’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, successful 2014.
He became the archetypal Asian subordinate to beryllium inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame successful July 2024.
