Zohran Mamdani’s viral campaign is inspiring CPI(M)’s social media pitch for Bengal polls

“If you’re among the corrupt and wealthy 1% loved by the BJP, stop watching,” communist leader Dipsita Dhar said at the start of the video, looking into the camera. Though the line echoed the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s longheld ideology of class struggle, the vocabulary of “1%” was new, borrowed from the politics of the United States.

The video also broke from the CPI(M)’s usually stern communication style. In this short video, which has garnered over a million views on Facebook since it was uploaded a week ago on March 29, the 32-year-old sounded cheeky while attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party. It was shot with her walking down the street with stylised music and colourful, blocky text.

The impetus for this change? “Zohran Mamdani,” said Dhar, who studied at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. “His videos are very refreshing to look at. As young people we should be talking like this.”

The research scholar is contesting the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal from Dum Dum North, a seat situated in a Kolkata suburb. She was not the only one to bring up the socialist Mamdani’s viral election campaign from 2025, which catapulted him from being a minor politician to mayor of New York.

Afreen Begum, who...

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