New Delhi, March 19
Less than nine months after he lost the Lok Sabha polls from his home state of Tamil Nadu, former Rajiv Gandhi loyalist, Mani Shanker Aiyar is back in favour. He was, finally, rehabilitated today, albeit nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

The President Pratibha Patil issued a notification nominating Aiyar along with noted educationists and artistes including lyricist Javed Akhtar and Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar, who is Chairman of the high-profile Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla.

The President can nominate 12 persons who have excelled in various fields to the Upper House. Today’s list is against vacancies caused due to the retirement of nominated members.

For Aiyar, who was minister in the first term of the Congress-Led UPA, it is political rehabilitation, especially after he lost Lok Sabha elections from the Mayiladuthurai seat to AIADMK's O S Manian by a margin of 36,800 votes, in May last year. The surprise was that Aiyar has been nominated and not elected to the upper house from one of the states.

Aiyar, 69, is a former career diplomat who left the Indian Foreign Service to join politics in the 1989 after having served under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi while in the Government. Since the loss of his seat last year, he was among the inglorious list of high-profile ministers who were asked to vacate their official bungalows in the national capital as the new ministers had to be accommodated.

Aiyar held the petroleum, sports and Panchayati Raj portfolios, respectively, at separate points in time, in the previous Manmohan Singh cabinet.

Along with Aiyar, the list has the name of Javed Akhtar. He along with Salim Khan was of the part of famous movie script writing duo — Salim-Javed — including wrote the hit bollywood epic Sholay in the 1970s. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007. Of late, he has emerged as one of the vocal voices of the Muslim Community. His wife actress Shabana Azmi has served also served a term in the upper house.

Dr Mungekar, is a former Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University and also a former member of the Planning commission of India. He is considered a leading development economist and educationist. He is the founder — President of Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Social and Economic Change.

Dr. Ram Dayal Munda, is former Vice Chancellor of the Ranchi University. He is noted anthropologist. At one point of time he was teaching in Chicago before returning to head the department of tribal languages. He has already been awarded the Padma Shri.

The fifth nominee B. Jayashree, is from Karnataka and is a theatre person. She is the granddaughter of the Kannada theatre artiste Gubbi Veeranna. She has her own group, Spandana, in Bangalore. It has told the `Raja Lakshapati`s Story` in 1986 in play.