new delhi union minister smriti irani who rose to fame as a popular tv actor said she quit acting after becoming an mp to focus on her responsibilities as a politician when i came to politics and became an mp i gave up my job as an actor if you want to be taken seriously for your political contributions then you need to give it that much time only after i settled in my office as a member of parliament did i put in the time as much as i can in my activities of arts and culture the minister for human resource development said the 38yearold actorturnedpolitician became a household name with her role as tulsi in producer ekta kapoors television serial kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi in mid2000 she will be seen in soon to release abhishek bachchanstarrer all is well irani clarified that she took up the movie project before becoming a minister and rued that she was not finding any time for its promotion its not a new movie and when i had the time nobody else did and now unfortunately we are just not getting to get our schedules together for promotions irani who is member of rajya sabha from gujarat said i am appreciative of abhishek that he understands my time challenge and time constraint currently i dont have time to even fix my broken arm she said in a lighter vein irani was one of the finalists of the beauty pageant miss india in 1998 and subsequently appeared in several television shows such as thodi si zameen thoda sa aasmaan viruddh and teen bahuraaniyaan before joining the bharatiya janata party in 2003 she holds the record of winning five consecutive indian television academy awards for best actor popular four indian telly awards eight star parivaar awards irani became vicepresident of the maharashtra bjp youth wing in 2004 in the 2004 general elections for the 14th lok sabha she contested unsuccessfully against kapil sibal from the chandni chowk constituency in delhi in the recent lok sabha elections she contested against congress vicepresident rahul gandhi in amethi but lost