Veteran music director Ilaiyaraaja, who's been ruling the Tamil movie music scene for decades, has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India. The Rajya Sabha, known as the Council of States, is the upper house of the Parliament of India with 245 members in total - 233 elected and 12 nominated by the President.

Besides Ilaiyaraaja who hails from Tamil Nadu, sports icon P T Usha from Kerala, screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad from Telangana, and philanthropist Heggade from Karnataka were also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, making them the newly elected Members of Parliament.

The nomination announcement was made by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who shared the exciting news on his social media and spoke about the music director's inspiring life journey and his immense contribution to the music and film industries. All the newly nominated members have had illustrious careers and have received national and global recognition. Check out the post here: