She also was the first Nepali woman to be elected as the Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal A member of the influential Koirala family, Acharya entered active politics as a student, and was held political prisoner for three years as a teenager, after she showed a black flag to King Mahendra in protest of coup d'état by the monarchy against the democratically elected government in 1961.

Upon release, she went into self-exile in India where she fostered a close friendship with Indian leaders, notably Chandra Sekhar, while she continued to advance the democratic struggle against the Panchayat System.

After King Gyanendra suspended democracy in another coup, she continued to support constitutional monarchy publicly, in defiance of her party's position.

She is remembered for her principled positions, her defiance of tyranny at a young age, her role in the fight for democracy, and her philanthropic activities.

[9] On 18 February 1961,[7] she showed a black flag to King Mahendra in protest of the latter suspending democracy in Nepal and imprisoning the democratically elected prime minister BP Koirala who was also her uncle.

[11][12] She, along with Bhim Bahadur Tamang and Chakra Prasad Bastola, was instrumental in re-organising Tarun Dal, the youth wing of the party, in 1973-74.

[14][15] She returned to Nepal in 1976 along with BP Koirala,[10] but she and everyone else were immediately arrested upon landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, and taken directly to Sundarijal jail.

[7] In the Nepali Congress government formed by Girija Prasad Koirala in 1991, she was given an opportunity to choose her own ministerial portfolio.

[4] Acharya drew widespread criticism for her opposition to the seven-party alliance against the direct rule by the king.

[9][26] She had donated 1.5 bigha of land for the construction site of the institute, and later negotiated a partnership with CTEVT to provide accessible skills training to poor women and girls in the community.

[25] In her final years, she was in poor health having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and dropped out almost completely from public life.

[5] She had previously sought treatment in Bangkok for nine months[10] as well as in New Delhi, and two days before her death, had been admitted to TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu,[10][5] where she was on ventilator support in the ICU.

[28] Acharya has been remembered as an inspiring figure and "a rebellious personality" by senior Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Paudel.

[29] The then prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, speaking at her funeral, called her an icon of democratic values and principles, further stating that her determined fight against "corruption, irregularities and wrongful attitudes even when she was in power" was exemplary.

[30] Her showing the black flag to King Mahendra in 1961 for which she spent three years in jail, is considered a landmark event in the history of Nepalese struggle for freedom and democracy.