A freedom fighter, politician and the 1st woman Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh of Independent India, Sucheta Kripalini was born on 25 June 1908 to a Bengali family in Ambala. S.N. Majumdar, her father was a government doctor and a nationalist. Educated at Indraprastha College and St.Stephen's College, Delhi, she became a Professor of Constitutional History at Banaras Hindu University. In the year 1936, she married socialist, Acharya Kriplani and joined the Indian National Congress. Sucheta Kripalini came into the picture of Indian history during the Quit India Movement. Shhe worked in close association with Mahatma Gandhi during the time of partition riots and in 1946; she went along with him to Noakhali. She was one amid the handful women who got elected to the Constituent Assembly. She became a part of the subcommittee that was handed over the chore of laying down the deed for the constitution of India. On 15th August 1947, i.e. the Independence Day, she sang the national song Vande Mataram in the Independence Session of the Constituent Assembly. During the post Independence period, she was involved in politics in Uttar Pradesh. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the year 1952 and 1957. She also served as the Minister of State for Small Scale Industries. In the year 1962, she was elected to the U.P Assembly. In the year 1963, she became the first woman to hold a exalted position of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. During her long tenure of work, one of her biggest achievements has been the effectual handling of the 62 day long strike by the state employees. In the year 1971, she took retirement from the politics and went into isolation and died in the year 1974. Birth : 25th June 1908 Death: 1st December 1974 Achievement: First Woman Chief Minister of a state of free India.
