Rekha, Jaya unlikely to be seated in close proximity in RS

Rekha and Jaya Bachchan, who created ripples with their film Silsila, are unlikely to be seated in close proximity in the Rajya Sabha with the SP MP seeking to shift her place to be along with her other party members.

Rekha and Jaya Bachchan, who created ripples with their film Silsila, are unlikely to be seated in close proximity in the Rajya Sabha with the SP MP seeking to shift her place to be along with her other party members.

While there is no information yet on when Rekha along with cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar will take oath after they were last week nominated to the Upper House by the UPA, the Rajya Sabha secretariat has tentatively finalised their seating arrangements.

Sachin and Rekha will be seated on the vacant seat numbers 98, 99 and 103, meant for nominated members and the same will be fixed in consultation with them, sources said.

The Samajwadi Party, meanwhile, has decided to rearrange the seat arrangements of their members, with Jaya set to change her seat with fellow member Kiranmoy Nanda (seat number 143) after she sought to be seated alongwith her other party colleagues.

Jaya was allotted seat number 91 alongwith party colleague Brij Bhushan Tiwari, who died last week a day after he took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

She has now requested for a change of seat, which the Rajya Sabha secretariat has agreed to, they said.

The on-screen and off-screen relationship of Jaya's husband Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha has always provided fodder to Bollywood gossip mills. The two acted in films like Do Anjaane (1976), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Mr Natwarlal (1979), Suhaag (1979) and Silsila (1981), where Rekha played the other women.