Sumati Suklikar (24 December 1923 - 22 February 2011), known variously using Tai or Bai honorifics as Sumatitai or Sumatibai or Tai Suklikar, was an Indian politician. She was a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party and its precursor Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and was from Nagpur, Maharashtra.[1] She contested elections for Maharashtra Legislative Assembly four times in 1960s and 1970s.[2] She died on 22 February 2011 due to old age.[3]
She had a brother-like relation with the veteran Communist Party of India leader A. B. Bardhan from Nagpur. Although they contested elections against each other. Sumatitai was like an elder sister to Bardhan.[4] In 2018, Maharashtra state government launched a scheme named 'Sumatibai Suklikar Yojana' in Sumati-bai's memory to effect social upliftment of women in rural parts of the state.[5]
Alankar Talkies Chowk, Ambazari Road, Nagpur, Maharashtra was renamed after her as "Lokmata Sumatitai Suklikar Chowk" and a copper mural was installed there as a tribute to her social and political work. It was inaugurated by the then" Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari" on 18 June 2023.