The UK general elections scheduled on June 8 will see a Bengali contestant this time. Rohit K Dasgupta, born and brought-up in Kolkata and graduated from Jadavpur University is all set to contest the elections from East Hampshire seat on a Labour Party ticket. 

He will be the first Bengali to be in the electoral fray in the UK.

Dasgupta who is a lecturer at the Loughborough University, London, has been living in the UK for past eight years and soon became a member of the Labour Party seven years ago. He completed his graduation in comparative literature from JU in 2009.

“It is a great honour to be fighting a seat for Labour Party in this election and offer a credible alternative to the Tories,” Dasgupta said, describing East Hampshire as a ‘tough constituency’.

The Kolkata boy, however, has a tough competition.  The seat is a stronghold of the Conservative Party, which secured more than 50% votes in 2010 and 2015. Damian Hinds is representing the seat since 2010.

Dasgupta’s campaign will focus on the issues of housing, education, health and fair living wage.

As per a report published in the Hindustan Times Dasgupta said, “I am campaigning on four main areas - building more social housing and caps on rent and rogue landlords, making education available to everyone and not burden students with debts after university, the national health service which is Labour’s biggest achievement providing free healthcare for all and a fair living wage.” 

“My politics is firmly rooted within left liberal socialism. I am opposed to all kinds of nationalism, a resurgence of which we see in the UK, Europe and in India as well. I consider myself an internationalist,” Dasgupta added.

He further said, “When in Kolkata, I was also campaigning for issues such as child abuse, queer rights, and gender violence and was associated with human rights charities.”