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MP Gopi seeks to step down from ministerial post
BJP MP Suresh Gopi seeks to resign as minister to focus on acting, citing income issues and family obligations, suggesting C Sadanandan Master as his replacement.
Union minister and BJP MP Suresh Gopi has once again expressed a desire to relinquish his ministerial post and return to acting, citing a drop in his income and obligations towards his family.
Gopi, the BJP’s first-ever Lok Sabha MP from Kerala and a longtime actor in the Malayalam film industry, made the remarks after inaugurating the MP office of Rajya Sabha MP C Sadanandan Master in Kannur on Sunday.
Gopi, in the past too, has said that he wants to step down from his position as MoS (Petroleum, Natural Gas, Tourism) in the Narendra Modi-led Union government, citing his inclination towards acting and prior commitments for various film projects. The actor-turned-politician joined the BJP in 2016 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha the same year for contribution towards arts. In 2019 and 2021, he contested the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, respectively, in Kerala, but lost both contests. In the 2024 LS polls, he emerged victorious in the Thrissur parliamentary seat, trouncing CPI’s VS Sunil Kumar by over 74,000 votes.
Gopi said on Sunday that he would be happy if C Sadanandan Master gets the ministerial post in his place.
“Before the 2024 elections too, I had told reporters that I don’t want to be a minister. I want to continue acting. As a minister, there are numerous challenges. I have said that I want to boost my income. I want to take care of my children. A few people are depending on my income. Right now, my income has stalled...I was made a minister possibly because of the mandate. I am the first BJP leader to be directly elected by people in Lok Sabha,” said Gopi.
“I earnestly believe that if I am excused and if he (Sadanandan Master) is made a minister, it will rewrite the political future of Kerala,” he added.
Sadanandan Master, an RSS-BJP leader, is a victim of political violence. In 1994, both his legs were severed by CPI(M) activists in his native village of Perinchery near Mattannur in Kannur district.
