Tennis legend Leander Paes joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, March 31, at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi, days before the West Bengal Assembly elections are due.
Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Sukanta Majumdar, along with MP Anil Baluni, were present at the induction. Rijiju called the occasion historic, saying Paes had been drawn to the BJP by what the Prime Minister had done for sport and athletes over the past twelve years.
Paes, born in Kolkata in 1973, is one of India’s most decorated tennis players. He won a bronze medal in men’s singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and went on to claim 18 Grand Slam titles across men’s doubles and mixed doubles. In July 2024, he entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame as its first Asian inductee, joining the ranks of Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Over the course of his career he received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.
Speaking at the press conference following his induction, an emotional Paes said, “For 40 years in my life, I have played for the country, represented India in tournaments like the Davis Cup and Olympics to earn respect. Now, this is a new field. My brothers have bestowed a responsibility, and I want to serve the nation and the youth.”
“I want to thank PM Modi, Amit Shah ji and Nitin Nabin and appreciate the way the BJP family has nurtured me and given me the opportunity. This party membership slip is not just a slip but a responsibility to serve the nation,” he added.
Paes also outlined his priorities, flagging the absence of indoor tennis courts in the country and calling for equal pay for male and female athletes. “I want an equal pay grade system in India for boys and girls. I want to bring empowerment for every boy and girl,” he said.
This is not Paes’s first foray into politics. He had briefly aligned with the TMC in 2014 without pursuing active politics, and then joined the party again in October 2021 ahead of the Goa Assembly elections, in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who he credited at the time for encouraging him to pursue tennis. He took part in door-to-door campaigning during the 2022 Goa polls. The TMC’s Goa campaign, guided by strategist Prashant Kishor, fell short of its ambitions.
The BJP is hoping Paes’s star power will help the party make inroads in Kolkata and south Bengal, areas that have traditionally favoured the Trinamool Congress. In Kolkata, which has eleven assembly constituencies, the BJP drew a blank in both the 2016 and 2021 state elections and fared poorly in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Party leaders believe Paes could appeal to the urban, educated voters of the region whom the party has struggled to reach.
Majumdar, MP from Balurghat, said Paes’s entry would help the party grow further in the state.
West Bengal is set to go to polls in late April. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has separately written to the Chief Election Commissioner alleging that BJP agents had submitted thousands of fraudulent applications to enrol non-residents on the state’s electoral rolls.
