Nandini Satpathy - Political Career

Political Career

While at Ravenshaw College pursuing her Master of Arts in Oriya, she became involved with the Communist Party's student wing, the Student Federation. In 1951, a student protest movement began in Odisha; it demonstrated against rising college education costs, which later became a national youth movement. Satpathy was a leader in this movement, and a police lathi charge was used against one protest she was in. She was jailed, like many others; while there, she met Devendra Satpathy, another Student Federation member and the man whom she later married. (He was later elected for two terms as the lower house member of parliament from Dhenkanal.

In 1962, the Congress party was dominant in Odisha; the Odisha State Legislative Assembly of 140 members had over 80 from the Congress party. At a national level, there was a movement to have more women representatives in the Indian Parliament. The Assembly elected Satpathy (then president of the Women's Forum) to the upper house of India's Parliament, where she served two terms. After Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India in 1966, Satpathy became a Minister attached to the Prime Minister, with her specific portfolio being the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Satpathy returned to Odisha in 1972, due to vacancies caused by Biju Patnaik and others departing from the Congress party, and became the Chief Minister of Odisha. During the Indian Emergency of 26 June 1975 – 21 March 1977, she imprisoned a number of notable individuals, including Nabakrusna Choudhuri and Rama Devi; however, Odisha had the least number of prominent individuals jailed during the Emergency, and Satpathy otherwise attempted to resist Indira Gandhi's policies during the Emergency. Satpathy left office in December 1976. During the general election in 1977, she was part of a group of protesters led by Jagjivan Ram, which became the Congress for Democracy party.

Satpathy returned to the Congress party in 1989, at the request of Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress party was unpopular in Odisha as a whole, due to its prior 15-year rule there (primarily under Janaki Ballabh Patnaik as Chief Minister). She was elected as a member of the State Legislative Assembly from Gondia and remained in the Assembly until 2000, when she decided to retire from politics; she did not contest the 2000 elections. She was not influential in and was critical of the Odisha branch of the Congress party.