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Suresh Gopi had won Lok Sabha poll from Thrissur by defeating CPM candidate VS Sunilkumar by a margin of nearly 75,000 votes.
Suresh Gopi, Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s first Lok Sabha MP from Kerala, has reportedly termed Indira Gandhi as the ‘mother of India’. The actor-turned-politician called late former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran as a ‘courageous administrator’, PTI reported.
Suresh Gopi also labelled Karunakaran and another former CM EK Nayanar as his ‘political gurus’. The BJP leader made the remark after visiting Karunakaran’s memorial ‘Murali Mandiram’ in his constituency Thrissur.
In fact, Gopi had won Thrissur by defeating Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate VS Sunilkumar by a margin of nearly 75,000 votes. Karunakaran’s son K Muraleedharan stood third in the poll contest.
While urging reporters not to add any political connotation to the remarks, Gopi said he came to the memorial to pay respects to his ‘guru’, the PTI report added.
The Union minister said that like EK Nayanar and his wife Sarada Teacher, he also had relations with Karunakaran and his wife. Kalyanikutty Amma.
Gopi, the minister of state for tourism and petroleum, called India’s first woman prime minister Indira Gandhi as ‘Bharathathinte mathavu (mother of India)’, and dubbed Karunakaran the “father of the Congress party in the state”.
However, he clarified that bestowing such a title to Karunakaran was not a disrespect to the founders or co-founders of Congress in Kerala. Continuing his praise for Karunakaran, Gopi dubbed the late Congress leader as a “courageous administrator” of his generation.
After taking oath as a minister in the Narendra Modi government, there were reports that Gopi would step down from his post. However, he dismissed as ‘grossly incorrect’ media reports suggesting that he was seeking an ‘exit’ from the Narendra Modi-led government.
“A few media platforms are spreading the incorrect news that I am going to resign from the Council of Ministers of the Modi Government. This is grossly incorrect. It is a matter of pride for me to be in the Council of Ministers of the Modi Government and to represent the people of Kerala,” Gopi had said in a social media post.
