Kalatan Dasgupta, a CPI(M) youth leader from West Bengal, is set to contest his first major electoral contest in the Panihati Assembly seat.
Dasgupta rose to prominence through student activism, starting with SFI and later working in DYFI, where he built his base through campus politics, local mobilisation, and party organisation work in Kolkata and North 24 Parganas.
He gained wider public attention during the RG Kar Medical College protest movement (2024), where he was part of early student-led demonstrations and became a visible Left voice in street protests around issues of safety, governance, and accountability in institutions.
This period significantly increased his recognition beyond internal party circles, making him a strong contender in the upcoming election.
Dasgupta will be directly up against TMC candidate Tirthankar Ghosh and BJP candidate Ratna Debnath in the Panihati Assembly constituency, which has been dominated by TMC in recent years.
With this election, Dasgupta is taking his first serious step into mainstream electoral politics at the Assembly level, marking a significant shift from his previous organisational and protest-driven role.
