New Delhi : 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.
As this diarist had reported yesterday, Jaya Bachchan's request to be moved out of her earlier seat, which would be dangerously close to that of debutante Rekha, had put Shukla's office in a fix.
But the good news is, he may have been able to work out a solution after all. After some careful permutation and combination, the minister has swapped Mrs Bachchan's seat with another party colleague, at 143, far away from her previous 91. As for Rekha, we believe she will be allocated 97 or 98.
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.
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 DoAnjaane (1976), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Mr Natwarlal (1979), Suhaag (1979) and Silsila (1981), where Rekha played the other women.
