Thiruvananthapuram: Actor Suresh Gopi took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP in New Delhi on Friday, becoming the first actor from the state to be nominated to the Upper House of Parliament. Mr Gopi took the oath in English before Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, around 11 am.
Members of his family, including his wife Radhika Nair, were present in the gallery, to witness the function. Before taking oath, Mr Gopi touched the feet of the Vice-President as a mark of respect.
Earlier, before the ceremony, Mr Gopi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invited him to visit Guruvayur temple. Mr Gopi later told reporters that the PM had accepted the invitation. Many actors from the Malayalam film field, including Mammootty, Mohanlal, Innocent, Kavya Madhavan, Jayaram, Parvathy and Dileep, called Mr Gopi to congratulate him.
All others nominated along with him had taken the oath on Thursday. However, Mr Gopi could not take oath on the day as there was a delay in receiving the official intimation regarding the nomination.
President Pranab Mukherjee had nominated five others, including boxer M.C. Mary Kom, former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, former NAC member Narendra Jadhav and journalist Swapan Dasgupta along with Mr Gopi.
