Who is Saikat Chakrabarti? Indian-origin man challenging Nancy Pelosi in California's 11th Congressional District

Saikat Chakrabarti , a former chief of staff to New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , has announced that he will run in the 2026 Democratic primary for California’s 11th Congressional District. He will be challenging Nancy Pelosi , the longest-serving House member from California.

Chakrabarti posted about his decision on X, expressing respect for Pelosi’s career but arguing that the Democratic Party needs change to meet today’s challenges.

Chakrabarti wrote, “I’ve decided to run against Nancy Pelosi… I know some of you might be surprised that speaker Emeritus Pelosi is running again, but she is — for her 21st term.” He added that Pelosi once said Democrats did not need to change after Trump’s election, a position he strongly disagrees with.

Pelosi, who served as speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, remains a key Democratic figure. She won re-election in 2024 and has held her seat since 1987.

Who Is Saikat Chakrabarti

• Saikat Chakrabarti was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Bengali immigrant parents from India.
• He studied at Harvard University, where he earned a degree in computer science.
• After graduating, he moved to San Francisco and co-founded a tech start-up.
• He later joined Stripe, a financial services company, as one of its early engineers.
• Chakrabarti left the tech industry in 2016 to work on senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
• While working on the campaign, he helped build digital tools to support grassroots fundraising and outreach.
• He co-founded Justice Democrats, a political group aimed at electing progressive candidates to Congress.
• Through this initiative, he helped launch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s successful 2018 congressional campaign.
• He served as Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager and later as her first chief of staff in Congress.
• After leaving Capitol Hill, he returned to San Francisco and began leading a policy think tank.
• His think tank focuses on solving economic and environmental problems through clean energy strategies.
• He has said that he now wants to take these policy ideas to Congress to help both San Francisco and the country.

Clashes with Democratic leadership

In 2019, Chakrabarti became the centre of controversy due to his outspoken social media posts while serving as chief of staff to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. He criticised moderate Democrats in now-deleted tweets, accusing them of harming communities of colour. One tweet compared them to the old Southern Democrats who supported segregation, which drew sharp backlash from party leadership.

Nancy Pelosi reportedly addressed the issue in a closed-door meeting, warning members against using social media to attack fellow Democrats.

Chakrabarti also faced criticism from right-wing media after being photographed wearing a T-shirt featuring Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose. Critics pointed out Bose’s controversial alliance with Nazi Germany during World War II.