Gadkari welcomes Tendulkar's new innings as Rajya Sabha MP

New Delhi, June 4 (ANI Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nitin Gadkari on Monday congratulated cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on his taking oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

"Sachin Tendulkar has taken oath as the member of Rajya Sabha. He is from Mumbai and I know him. I congratulate him. He is not a politician and he does not want be a part of politics, neither does he want to campaign for any party. He is just an honourable member and I support and welcome him into the house," he said.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav also congratulated Tendulkar, and said that he was extremely delighted over the master blaster's new innings.

"I have been a great fan of Sachin Tendulkar, so I am very happy. I told him that now there will be a cricket match between Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Till now, our team was weak," he added.

Meanwhile, yoga guru Baba Ramdev said that he would be holding consultations with Tendulkar on various issues.

"I congratulate him and I will meet him soon and I will consult him on various issues," he added.

Tendulkar, who today took oath as member of the Rajya Sabha earlier today, made it clear that he would like to use the opportunity of being a member of the Upper House of Parliament to contribute in a meaningful manner not only for cricket, but also for other sports.

Tendulkar, who took his oath in Hindi in the office of Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, is the first active sportsperson and cricketer to have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha under the Prominent Citizens Quota.

He was nominated to the Upper House along with film actress Rekha and industrialist Anu Aga in April, but had to wait to take his oath until the end of IPL season 5.

Tendulkar is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the first player to score a double century in ODI cricket.

In 2002, just 12 years into his career, Wisden ranked Tendulkar the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. He was also a part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team. (ANI)