Former tennis player and Olympic medal winner, Leander Paes, on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the April 23-29 West Bengal assembly polls.
Paes, who was born in West Bengal, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision inspired him, and he wants to focus on sports and the youth. “Ours is a young nation. There are 745 million youngsters below the age of 26. The focus in the next 20-25 years should be on sports education, sports infrastructure, medicine, and architecture,” he said.
Paes pointed out the absence of sports infrastructure in the country and said there is not a single indoor tennis court in India, despite experiencing high temperatures and rain. “When I started playing in 1986 in Bengal, there were no clay courts… the infrastructure has improved, but Bengal can do better,” said Paes, who won a bronze medal in men’s singles tennis at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Paes credited Union minister Kiren Rijiju for inspiring him to join the BJP to work for sports infrastructure in the country. He praised government programmes such as Khelo India for giving a fillip to sports.