Social media platform X’s head of policy for India and South Asia, Samiran Gupta, has resigned, two sources said, a top departure that comes ahead of India elections and as the company fights a court battle with New Delhi over content removal.

Gupta, according to a Reuters report today, was the most senior India employee for X, formerly known as Twitter. He was responsible for “key content-related policy issues” and “defending Twitter’s position with new policy developments and support in-country sales organization,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

Gupta’s tenure at X ended in September, according to Gupta’s LinkedIn profile, which said he “enabled transition leadership for Twitter post acquisition by Elon Musk led X-Corp.”

He had joined the company in February, 2022, eight months before Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

X counts India as a key market, with around 27 million users. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials are regular users of the platform.
There are roughly 15 X employees in functions like compliance and engineering in India, said one of the sources, but Gupta was the only executive engaging with the government and political parties.

Interaction between X and government and party officials would intensify typically during the run up to polls, and a national election is due to take place in India next year.