Television actor-turned-politician Shekhar Suman has quit the Congress and his almost grounded political career on Saturday, saying he wants to focus full time on his TV shows and production company.
“At this moment in my life, I think, as an actor, I must pay attention to the acting work on my hand. I have realised that politics is not a leisure activity where one can engage in, say, every Sunday only,” said Suman after resigning from the Congress. The actor had joined the national party in 2009 and contested the Lok Sabha polls in Patna Saheb constituency that year. He was defeated by filmstar Shatrughan Sinha of the BJP.
Denying speculation about his plans to join Bihar’s ruling JD(U) as baseless, Suman said, “I have no such plans right now. I resigned from the Congress because I found that politics needs total commitment and I fail to travel in two boats at the same time. I am very grateful to the Congress for having given me an opportunity, but I could not serve neither the party nor the people well”.
He attended a lunch organised by Bihar chief minister and JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar at the latter’s residence, and said it had no political implications.
“I attended the lunch as I was invited like many others from many fields,” explained Suman.
For the Congress in Bihar, Suman’s departure is unlikely to make any major impact because the actor, despite hailing from Patna, had been constantly out of Bihar and hardly taking any interest in the party’s affairs.
In the absence of any official reaction from the Congress, a senior leader said, “He (Suman) might have had high expectations from the party and obviously got disappointed, but the party had lost all hopes in him (Suman) and so there will be no disappointment here”.