MUMBAI: Actor and host Shekhar Suman who is in the news for his role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's directorial OTT series on Netflix 'Heeramandi' playing a degenerated Nawab Zulfiqar Ahmed joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday in the presence of party leader Vinod Tawde at the party headquarters in Delhi. Former Congress leader Radhika Khera also joined the BJP along with Mr Suman.

This isn’t Suman's first venture into politics as back in 2009, he had run for the Lok Sabha seat from Patna Sahib a city in the Patna district of Bihar on a Congress party ticket, but lost against another Bollywood actor and then BJP candidate Shatrughan Sinha, securing third place in the election. Another Congress functionary, Radhika Khera, who was the national coordinator of the Congress' media department and had quit the party last Sunday, also joined the BJP along with Mr Suman. 

Taking on his induction in the party Suman first thanked the BJP leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Tawde, JP Nadda, and Anurag Thakur for inducting him into the party Suman said he did not know until yesterday that he would be taking this step and thanked God for ordering him to do so.

“Till yesterday I did not know that I would be sitting here today because many things in life happen knowingly or unknowingly. I have come here with a very positive thinking and I would like to thank God that he ordered me to come here,” Suman said while addressing a press conference in Delhi. 

On his experience working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Heeramandi, Suman told news agency ANI, “As an artist, you desire to work with a well-known director. I got a chance to work with him, but on every step, on every path, a person learns something. So I feel that when I started this work in Heeramandi, it was enough for me to do even one scene. Because to be seen in this environment and to do something is a big thing in itself. But there is also a connection to it. This opportunity came to me at a time when I was not expecting it.”