NEW DELHI: One of the last queens of India, Maharani Gayatri Devi, who was feted as an international style icon and spent time in jail after she became a politician, died on Wednesday, her family doctor said. She was 90.

She married the Maharaja of Jaipur in 1939, becoming a member of the royal family that effectively ruled the city of Jaipur and the Rajasthan state.

The family — surrounded by hundreds of servants — lived a lavish life revolving around hunting, polo, entertaining friends and summers spent in Europe.

After India’s independence, the family retained its local influence and much of its wealth, and Ms Devi became a successful politician winning a seat in parliament in 1962 and retaining it twice in elections.

A critic of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, she was jailed by prime minister Indira Gandhi for five months for violating tax laws in the 1970s, when former ruling families were finally stripped of many of their privileges.

Famed as a horsewoman and as a fashion trendsetter, she died in Jaipur after a long illness, the Press Trust of India quoted her doctor as saying.

She was once among Vogue magazine’s list of the world’s 10 most beautiful women and counted Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and former US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy among her friends.

Ms Devi, who was dubbed ‘queen mother’, was also well-known for promoting education among women and she founded a prestigious school in Jaipur named after her. — AFP