Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 (IANS): The Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended an invite to Malayalam film actor Suresh Gopi for joining the party.

The invite was extended by state BJP president V.Muraleedharan, who apprised reporters here Thursday about the formal invitation.

"Three months back, I had a talk with him and so did a national leader of ours. He (Gopi) then said that he will make a decision at the appropriate time. Now that we have extended our invite to him to join our party, the decision has now to be made by him," said Muraleedharan.

Gopi, incidentally, had met Narendra Modi before the latter became Prime Minister. The Malayalam actor, who has performed in about 200 films, had then stated that he was hugely impressed with Modi.

The actor was later also present at Modi's swearing-in ceremony.

Gopi could not be reached for his comments following Muraleedharan's announcement of the invitation.