Mehta had said the award could be misconstrued coming as it does ahead of the elections.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has said his sister Gita Mehta has the right to do as she desires, when asked about her turning down of the Padma Shri award announced on Friday. She had refused the award saying its timing, ahead of a general election, could be misconstrued.
"My sister has a right to do whatever she desires," Patnaik was quoted as saying, by news agency ANI.
Mehta's reasoning went that as the sister of Naveen Patnaik, whose Biju Janata Dal (BJD) could be a potential ally in a post-poll scenario, it could be misconstrued as an inducement or flattery if she accepted the award.
A day after her name figured on the Padma honours list under the 'Foreigners' category, Mehta released a polite statement refusing her award. "I am deeply honoured that the Government of India should think me worthy of a Padma Shri but with great regret I feel I must decline as there is a general election looming and the timing of the award might be misconstrued, causing embarrassment both to the Government and myself, which I would much regret," read her statement.
The BJD had been part of the BJP-led NDA from 1997 to 2009, when it pulled out just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The two former allies however have found common cause over multiple issues in Parliament, even as they go at each other in Odisha.
As a regional political party that holds it own without the help of either the BJP or the Congress, the BJD is also the focus of leaders such as TMC's Mamata Banerjee and TRS's K Chandrasekhar Rao, who are trying to bring opposition parties together in their attempt to dislodge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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