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The people’s newsroom

StatesTamil Nadu

L Murugan asks to quit as minister and Rajya Sabha MP to build BJP in Tamil Nadu

The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting wrote to the Prime Minister saying he wants to return to the grassroots ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

From the editorial desk · ChennaiPublished
L Murugan (left) in Port Blair (file photo)
L Murugan (left) in Port Blair (file photo)Andaman & Nicobar Administration Archives / Wikimedia

Key points

  1. L Murugan asked PM Modi to relieve him as Minister of State and let him give up his Rajya Sabha seat.
  2. He wants to work full-time for the BJP in Tamil Nadu before the 2029 Lok Sabha election.
  3. There was no word on Tuesday on whether his request had been accepted.

Union Minister of State L Murugan has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relieve him of his ministerial post and allow him to give up his Rajya Sabha seat, so that he can work full-time on building the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

Murugan, who holds the Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios, shared his letter to the Prime Minister on X on Tuesday. He said he wanted to strengthen the party in the state ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

“I wish to return to the grassroots, stand with our karyakartas,” he wrote, adding that he wanted to “dedicate myself full-time to strengthening the BJP in Tamil Nadu”.

He said the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Tamil Nadu had convinced him that the party could grow there, and that he planned to go to every village and street to carry Modi’s message of inclusive development.

The letter traces his rise from Konur village, where his parents were daily wage labourers and cattle grazers. Murugan has spent nearly three decades in the ABVP and the BJP, and served as vice-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes before entering the Rajya Sabha, where he is in his second term. He was re-elected from Madhya Pradesh in April 2024, with a term running to April 2030.

He thanked Modi for five years in government, called it the greatest honour of his life and described his guiding principle as “Nation First. Party Next. Self Last.”

Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the BJP had said by Tuesday night whether the request had been accepted.