A brazen attempt by BJP candidate Suresh Gopi to meet and seek an election-time “blessing” from a Kathakali maestro with an alleged inducement of Padma Bhushan has fallen flat with the highly acclaimed exponent of the art form rebuffing the offer.

The incident came to light when the son of Kalamandalam Gopi Asan — "asan" being master in Malayalam and a suffix earned by experts — took to Facebook alleging how a medical doctor who knew his father and Suresh had tried to fix a meeting for the actor-politician to seek the maestro’s blessings.

Raghu Gurukripa, son of the maestro, said in a Facebook post that a doctor who had earlier treated his father had called the maestro and told him he was coming along with Suresh to seek his blessings. “When I told him (not to come), he asked me who am I to say so and reminded me that only he was there when my father was ill. But I told him not to take advantage of that and left it to my father to decide,” Raghu stated in his post.

“So my father called and told him not to come. Then the doctor asked my father ‘Don’t you want a Padma Bhushan?’ But my father told him he didn’t need it in that manner.”

Suresh told reporters that he had not delegated anyone to seek an appointment on his behalf and evaded further questions.