He was acclaimed for his rhetoric and was one of the leading politicians of the Indian National Congress from the Madras Presidency, alongside S. Srinivasa Iyengar, C. Rajagopalachari and T. Prakasam.

He entered politics at an early age, winning college elections and eventually emerging as one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Congress and a doyen of the freedom movement.

In 1919, when the Congress decide to send its representative to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (of the UK) to protest the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms and the Rowlatt Act, 32-year-old Sathyamurthi was chosen as a delegate.

[citation needed] Satyamurti was one of the leading lights of the Swarajists who laid the foundation for parliamentary democracy in India, the others being Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru.

It required extraordinary courage of conviction to take a view opposed to Gandhi, who had captivated the entire nation, which in the 1920s was not for participating in legislative politics.

The city of Madras was in the grip of an acute water scarcity and it was left to him to impress upon the British Government and colonial Governor the importance of agreeing to the proposal of Madras Corporation for building a reservoir in Poondi, about 50 km west of the city, to augment the water supply, especially in light of catastrophic global events namely the Second World War.

In those days, the tenure of Mayorship was only for a year but due to his efforts, diplomacy in dealing with the British Governor, and his administrative abilities, the foundation stone for the reservoir was laid in a matter of eight months.

Though Satyamurti was not alive to see the commissioning of the reservoir in 1944, the completion of the work in four years is considered, even by today's standards, something that is difficult to match.

[5] When E. Krishna Iyer championed the revival of Bharata Natyam, one of the major classic Indian dance traditions and its introduction in the Music Academy, Satyamurti supported the move.

He was a highly regarded politician of rare abilities, deeply mourned by his colleagues and the people of Madras Presidency, to whom he had dedicated his life to bringing freedom and justice.

"[citation needed] Satyamurti is the uncle of Professor Bala V. Balachandran, founder and Dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management, a business school located in Chennai.