Union Minister To Quit His Post, Return to Films for Income

Actor-turned-Union Minister Suresh Gopi conveyed his desire to step down from his post and get back to his film career. He suggested that BJP’s newly elected Rajya Sabha member C. Sadanandan Master be replaced in his position.

The Union Minister of State for Petroleum and tourism was addressing party workers in Kannur. He said that he never prayed to become a minister. Being a minister comes with a lot of difficulties, he said and added that he would like to continue acting and earn well because his children have not settled yet. There are a few people who depend on my income and to help at least a few of them, my source of income shouldn’t stop, he said. “But now, it has almost completely stopped.”

The actor-turned-politician said he was among the youngest BJP members in the state, having joined the party only in October 2016. He noted that the BJP might have made him a Union Minister in recognition of the mandate given by the people during the Lok Sabha polls.

He days: “I am the youngest member of this party. I remember, I took my party membership on October 28, 2016. At that time, we were told to take party membership within six months, and I hurriedly did it, it wasn’t something I had planned. Maybe it was because of the respect for the mandate, being the first MP elected by the people from Kerala, that the party felt a certain responsibility and that’s why I was made a minister. But let me say this from my heart, if I am relieved from this post and he (C. Sadanandan Master) is made a minister instead, I truly believe that would mark a new chapter in Kerala’s political history.”

The actor-turned-politician said he would pray that Sadanandan’s MP office would soon be upgraded to a ministerial office. It will open a new chapter in the political history of Kerala, he said. Sadanandan is a survivor of political violence. In 1994, he lost both his legs when CPI(M) allegedly attacked him.