Maragatham Chandrasekar (11 November 1917 – 26 October 2001) was an Indian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

from the Indian state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

Personal life

Maragatham Chandrasekar was born Maragatham Muniswami to Vidwan Kalathur Muniswami on 11 November 1917. She obtained her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and completed

diplomas A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

in free-lance, domestic science and dietetics courses in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. She also did a course on Specialized Institution Management and Administration at London. Maragatham married R. Chandrasekar and had a son (Lalit Chandrasekhar) and a daughter,

Lata Priyakumar Lata Priyakumar was an Indian politician and former member of the legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu. She was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Indian National Congress candidate from Arakkonam constituency in the 1991 electio ...

who also served as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

Politics

Maragatham Chandrasekar joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

and was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

from

Tiruvallur Tiruvallur is a Grade I municipality and a fast developing city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of Coovum river about from downtown Chennai (Madras) and just 5 km from megacity border, in the western p ...

in the 1951 parliamentary elections. She served as the Member of Lok Sabha for Tiruvallur from 1951 to 1957 and Member of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from 1970 to 1988. She served as the Union Deputy Minister for Health from 1951 to 1957, Home Affairs from 1962 to 1964 and Social Welfare from 1964 to 1967. In 1972, Maragatham was elected General Secretary of the

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...

. She was governor in Punjab state.

Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi

As former Member of Parliament from Sriperumbudur, Maragatham hosted the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during his visit to Sriperumbudur in 1991. She was present at the rally in Sriperumbudur where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.

Death

Maragatham died on 26 October 2001.

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