Tarkeshwari Sinha

Tarkeshwari Sinha (26 December 1926–14 August 2007) was an Indian politician and Indian independence movement activist from Bihar. Among the first female politicians of the country, she took active role in the Quit India Movement. At the age of 26, she was elected to the 1st Lok Sabha from Patna East constituency in 1952. Subsequently, she was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1957, 1962 and 1967 from Barh constituency. She was the first female Deputy Finance Minister in the union cabinet led by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru from 1958-64.^[1][2][3] She had also led a delegation to the U.N. and Tokyo.^[3] Gulzar’s critically acclaimed movie, Aandhi was partly inspired by Tarkeshwari Sinha, apart from Indira Gandhi.^[4][5]

She was considered close to Morarji Desai and was on his side in the battle of succession between Desai and Indira Gandhi to replace Lal Bahadur Shastri as Prime Minister. When Desai and other elders resigned from Congress to form a splinter group, she too joined it. In the Indira wave during 1971 Lok Sabha elections, she lost from Barh as Congress(O) candidate to the Congress nominee Dharamvir Sinha, her first taste of electoral defeat. She lost the assembly election next year as well, and returned to Indira Gandhi's party. In 1977, she fought Lok Sabha election from Begusarai as Congress candidate and lost in the Janata wave as Congress was completely routed in Bihar. After this defeat, she fought a by-election to Lok Sabha in November 1978 from Samastipur as Congress candidate but lost again.

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