KOCHI: Actor and BJP leader Suresh Gopi said he is still praying to be born into the Thanthri family in his next birth. He also said he wished to go inside the Sreekovil and hug and kiss Lord Ayyappa. He also said that he had landed in a controversy in the past for saying this. Suresh Gopi was speaking at the Pandit Karuppan award ceremony at Pavakulam temple in Kochi.

"I wish to be born in the Thanthri family in my next birth. It is not enough to see Lord Ayyappa from the outside in Sabarimala. I want to enter the Sreekovil and caress the Lord. That is my right. No one has the right to come against it. I have often told Rajiv that I want to die soon, be reborn, and be born in his Thazhamon Madom. I want to serve the Ayyappa like him. I want to be born as a Brahmin who desires to stimulate the Lord by chanting mantras. I had landed in a controversy for saying this. Some people who turned politics into a job misinterpreted my words," Suresh Gopi said.

In 2017, Suresh Gopi's statement had sparked a controversy. "I am someone who believes in rebirth. I have been able to understand what its truth is through constant experience. So I believe in it. In the next life, I wish to be a Brahmin wearing the sacred thread and become the Thanthri of Sabarimala," Suresh Gopi said in 2017.