NEW DELHI: One a sporting icon with demi-god status who is rarely away from the headlines and the other a relatively low profile parliamentarian, the two Tendulkars in the Upper House of Parliament are a study in contrasts.
Both Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, 44, and Vinay Dinu Tendulkar, 56, are debutants in the Rajya Sabha. But that's where their similarity perhaps ends.
While the cricket ace, a nominated member of the House, makes news just by attending the Rajya Sabha, Vinay Tendulkar is the BJP's man from Goa who stays behind the headlines, a quiet organisational worker who is chief of the party's unit in the coastal state.
Sachin Tendulkar's first term began in 2012, and will end in April 2018, but Vinay Tendulkar's run in the Rajya Sabha has just begun. He was elected to the House from the lone seat of Goa in July 2017.
The Bharat Ratna awardee hit the headlines last week after he rose to speak on 'the right to play and future of sports in India', a discussion initiated by him.
The master blaster, who has been in the public eye since he made his cricketing debut in his teens, could not complete his speech due to some heavy balling by the opposition against the government.
Vinay Tendulkar's career profile has been quite different.
He quit his job in a mining company in 1994 to pursue politics full-time and went to win the Sanvordem seat twice-- in 1999 and 2002.
A non-controversial figure, he is known to be close to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
"My great-grandfather was from Maharashtra, who migrated to Goa," Vinay Tendulkar said.
He was a former environment minister in the Manohar Parrikar cabinet from 2002-2005 and vice chairman of the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation from 2000-2004.
Vinay TendulkarÂ’s tenure as Goa party unit chief saw the BJP winning both the Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014, a rare feat for the party, and returning to power early this year despite not being the single largest party in the Assembly.
Vinay Tendulkar, who belongs to Dabal in South Goa, also known as the mining belt of the state, is also on the parliamentary committee on tourism, transport and culture, and has so far asked three questions, including two to the Ministry of External Affairs on Indian fishermen.
But Vinay Tendulkar is more than just a politician with a mining background. He is also fond of acting and has appeared in over 150 Marathi and Konkani plays.
Sandesh Prabhudesai, political analyst of Goa politics and editor of Goanews.com described Vinay Tendulkar as a hard-working party worker with subdued communication skills.
Though not so common, Tendulkar is a known surname in coastal belt in south Konkan and Goa, where linguistic and state borders came much later but people more or less have similar habits when it comes to food and traditions.
Amongst the others who share the famous surname were late playwright Vijay Tendulkar, known for the hard-hitting plays like "Ghashiram Kotwal" and "Sakharam Binder", and his daughter Priya, an actor.