Seat No. 100: Rajya Sabha's 'special gift' to Sachin?

Rajya Sabha may have a special gift awaiting cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Seat no 100 – symbolizing the number of centuries he had scored. HT reports.

Rajya Sabha may have a special gift awaiting cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Seat no 100 – symbolizing the number of centuries he had scored.

Ashok Ganguly, a former chairman of Hindustan Lever Limited, who has been allocated seat no 100 is willing to vacate it for 39-year-old cricket icon.

Quizmaster turned Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien spoke to Ganguly about this possibility soon after the government announced nomination of Tendulkar to the upper house.

“Currently seat number 100 in Rajya Sabha is allocated to Ashok Ganguly. He just told me he'll move to a nearby seat and give it to Sachin,” O’Brien tweeted. Ganguly was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2009.

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The Rajya Sabha nomination was also dubbed as a belated birthday gift for the cricket icon. Tendulkar, who turned 39 on Tuesday, had to wait for more than one year to move from 99 hundreds to the landmark 100th international century before finally achieving it in an Asia Cup match against Bangladesh on March 1.

O'Brien also said Rajya Sabha will now have two former India captains. “Hockey got there before cricket! Dilip Tirkey sworn in yesterday...now Tendulkar," he said in another tweet. Tirkey, a Rajya Sabha member from Orissa, is 35 years-old.