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Malayalam super star Suresh Gopi thrown out of Nair society office

The actor entered the hall after offering tributes at the tomb of NSS founder Mannathu Padmanabhan.

Trivandrum: Malayalam super star Suresh Gopi, who campaigned for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate O Rajagopal in the Aruvikkara by-poll, was on Saturday thrown out of the office of the Nair Service Society (NSS), a powerful social body of the Hindu Nair community.

NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair asked the actor to go out when he tried to enter the hall where the annual budget of the organisation was being presented. Gopi had visited the NSS headquarters at Changanacherry in Kottayam district without taking prior permission.

The actor entered the hall after offering tributes at the tomb of NSS founder Mannathu Padmanabhan. Sukumaran Nair asked Suresh Gopi to leave the hall immediately, and later said to the crowd present that “such pride and show will not work with the NSS.” The audience received the comment with applause.

Sources at the NSS said Sukumaran Nair was angry by the visit as it had come on the day of the polling at Aruvikkara, where BJP veteran O Rajagopal is locked in a tight three-cornered contest. Suresh Gopi, who was elevated to the helm of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) by the Modi government, had visited the NSS headquarters after staging an extensive road shows for Rajagopal. The sources said that the NSS chief suspected that the visit was part of a political move to trump up support for Rajagopal. Any special treatment to the actor would have been interpreted as a message to the Hindu community at Aruvikkara.

Though the NSS has been maintaining an equidistant policy with all political fronts for the past several years, leaders of all political parties used to visit its headquarters, especially before the polls. Opposition Left Democratic Front candidate at Aruvikkara M Vijayakumar had visited the NSS chief after he filed his nomination.

The actor told reporters that he had not taken prior appointment to meet the NSS chief as he had no plan to visit the NSS headquarters originally. He said he felt like paying his respects at the Mannam memorial while returning from a temple he visited in the area in connection with his birthday.

news@khaleejtimes.com