In a jolt to BJP in Kerala, Malayalam film director Ramasimhan Aboobaker (Ali Akbar) has resigned from BJP.

Announcing his resignation, Ramasimhan Aboobacker, on Thursday said in a Facebook post that he had left the BJP and sent a resignation email to Kerala BJP chief K Surendran.

Later, he said, “I am not a slave of any politics. Now, I am free from all and stand only with dharma.” However, Ramasimhan Aboobacker declared his loyalty to PM Narendra Modi. “I will always support PM Narendra Modi,” he said.

Along with his resignation post, Ramasimhan Aboobacker shared an old picture and wrote, “When Kummanam Rajettan lost, I kept my word and shaved my head. But now, I will not shave my head for anyone other than myself.”

The film director also said it had been a few days since he had resigned, but was announcing it now.

Aboobacker is the third film personality to quit the BJP in the past two weeks in Kerala. Earlier, Malayalam film director Rajasenan and actor Bhiman Raghu had announced their decision to resign from the BJP.

Ramasimhan Aboobacker, who was a member of the party’s state committee, had previously stepped down from all positions within the party. Now, he has taken the significant step of severing all ties with the BJP. It is being said he has resigned from the party, not because of any ideological differences with the party, but because of the neglect from the party’s state leadership and the way in which the party state unit is functioning.

Earlier, Ramasimhan shared a post praising Tami Nadu BJP president Annamalai criticising Kerala BJP president. “He has nothing to fear because he is not guilty of corruption; he is not a banana stick in the position of his backbone; he works for the country, and not for his family.”

Below this, Ramasimhan made a comment mocking Surendran. Someone’s comment that when will we get a leader like this, the reply was “Suretan lle” (Won’t we have Surendran).

Ali Akbar, who was born into a Muslim family, converted to Hinduism with his wife in 2021. After the conversion, he adopted the new name Ramasimhan. He has directed over 20 films. ‘Puzha Muthal Puzha Vare’ based on the Malabar rebellion, also called the Moplah riot that took place in north Kerala in 1921 was Ramasimhan’s latest film.

Many leaders of the party in the state have reportedly alleged that the group led by Union Minister V Muraleedharan and state president K Surendran is calling the shots in the party and they are sidelining prominent leaders such as P K Krishnadas ,Sobha Surendran and Sandeep Warrior. It has been said that the state leadership of the party failed to work united and boost the morale of the party cadres. The leadership of the party has failed to rise to the expectation of the party workers and cadres, it is alleged.

Meanwhile, BJP workers on the ground are reportedly sore over the manner in which the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel case and the Life Mission case were probed by the Central agencies. They feel that the allegation of the Congress that the BJP and Congress have entered into a deal over these cases has some substance. The Lavlin case, involving Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, adjourned for more than 30 times, has also not gone well with the BJP workers in Kerala.