AI campaigns make Yogi-Akhilesh election battle more coarse, less issue-based

A group of teenagers, almost characteristically, are glued to their phones. One plays an AI-generated video circulated by social media accounts identifying themselves with the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Another pulls up a similar video, this one from the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Both videos borrow a familiar Bollywood refrain, but twist its lyrics into political attacks. In one of them, the lyrics have been tweaked to “UP badnaam hua, Tipu tere maare”. It is a jibe at Akhilesh Yadav, referring to his nickname Tipu and targeting his former government over alleged mis-governance and lawlessness.

In another, Tipu is replaced with Baba, a swipe at the sitting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The video then shows saffron-clad figures allegedly stealing from a temple donation box, a cheeky reference to the Ram Mandir theft case, followed by an AI-generated image of Yogi smoking a chillum.

AI, the new weapon

These are not random reels competing for attention on the crowded feeds of these teenagers. They offer a glimpse of what political observers describe as an ongoing AI war between the ruling party and the principal Opposition.

And as artificial intelligence becomes a new political weapon in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections, veteran journalists and political observers speaking to The Federal caution that its pitfalls and vulnerabilities are hard to miss.

“Of course, this is not something new. It all started in 2014 — that marked the starting point of the seeming decadence of political messaging. With AI, it has indeed become dirtier and a lot more problematic. No matter which side wins, the public at large is the one at a loss,” Lucknow-based journalist and political commentator Sharat Pradhan told The Federal.

Beginning of AI war

Just a few weeks after the Gen Z protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital took the ruling dispensation by surprise and charged up the opposition parties, an AI-generated video, shared by accounts attaching themselves to the BJP, started to circulate. The videos increasingly got personal and not only targeted former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav but also dragged in his wife and four-time MP Dimple Yadav.

The SP responded in kind and stepped up the stakes. On August 31, it aired its first AI video — depicting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a chillum-smoking monk — in the presence of Akhilesh Yadav at the party office. By September 18, the SP had moved further ahead and aired another AI film in the classic retro style.

The aftermath of the Gen Z protest in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi has forced the parties to speak in the language that connects with this new set of potential voters."

Akhilesh even warned that if the BJP fires AI-generated songs at him, the SP will fire back — drawing clear battle lines with an eye for an eye as its clarion call.

While the BJP has vehemently denied that it has anything to do with these videos, the SP has maintained that it is only giving a "befitting reply" to what the BJP started.

Also Read: 9 viral memes that left netizens in stitches in 2024

“What BJP did with their AI video was completely fabricated and uncalled for. But it hit the hornet’s nest this time and now it is coming back to bite them. All these videos are very organic and authentic voices of our cadre that will not take such defamatory content from BJP quietly. For every video wrongly targeting us, they will get a befitting reply,” national spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party Abbas Haider told The Federal.

Crass, distasteful: BJP

The BJP, on its part, has accused the Samajwadi Party of resorting to crass and distasteful style of politics and claimed that they will be the one to have the last laugh.

“Our CM, Yogi ji, is like the sky. If you try to spit at the sky, it will only come back down on your own face. And this is what will happen to them (SP). They have no substantive issues to raise against us, so they are creating such offensive and misleading AI videos. People are seeing this as an attack on the Sanatan dharma and the people in the state will make them pay the price for such obscenity,” said the BJP’s state spokesperson Dinesh Pratap Singh.

While the attacks are as sharp and direct as they can get, when it comes to claiming their origin, both the parties chose ambiguity and a seemingly grey area that categorises these videos as “unofficially official”. And this caveat is crucial, as it allows supporters and affiliated networks to push political content while the parties themselves retain some distance from it.

Novelty vs decadence

What looks like a sudden AI phenomenon is actually the latest turn in a political transformation that, political experts argue, has been shaping up since the 2014 Lok Sabha election, which was a watershed in India's political use of social media.

They say that the way social media has been put to use since then hasn't been about putting politics online. It was about making politics faster, more targeted, and more responsive.

“And with AI coming into the picture, the scenario has become messier and more troublesome,” cautioned senior journalist and political commentator Shahira Naim.

For Naim, the design and timing of this controversy are hard to miss. The aftermath of the Gen Z protest in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi has forced the parties to speak in the language that connects with this new set of potential voters, she told The Federal.

The biggest problem is that technology is being used to manage perceptions, and that is blurring the line between fact and fiction."

But she contends that this is rather a very lazy use of AI and amounts to the overall degradation of political messaging at an “unprecedented” level. “It is definitely turning serious issues into entertainment. The Opposition has so much to talk about and bring to public attention in Uttar Pradesh — from allegations of corruption and bad roads to poor healthcare and the closing down of schools. There is so much from which to build a narrative around governance,” she noted.

The larger context

Another Lucknow-based veteran journalist, Anand Vardhan, lends weight to that argument and says that such deepfake AI videos as a political tool indeed trivialise the overall issue and drag the overall qualitative value of political messaging.

Also Read: Memes: The joke is on you, Mr Politician

“Satire and cartoons that were used before 2014 were a lot subtler and more sophisticated,” he noted. Vardhan, however, asserts that the AI debate has to be seen in a larger context.

“This kind of political abuse did not begin with AI. Akhilesh Yadav was repeatedly called 'thief' and 'Tipu' not just by IT cells, but also by elected ministers, spokespersons, and television channels. Rahul Gandhi was similarly reduced to the 'Pappu' label. The strategy was to demonise opponents so extensively that people simply stopped engaging with them. And now that strategy is coming back to haunt the trendsetters (BJP)," he told The Federal.

For Sharat Pradhan, the biggest problem is that technology is being used to manage perceptions, and that is blurring the line between fact and fiction.

“We are struggling to distinguish between fact and fiction. The biggest problem is that there is no easy way of containing this. Ultimately, it has to be left to people's discretion — how they discern between fact and fiction. That is the challenge,” he added.

The pitfalls of chasing virality

Besides the content being problematic, there are other pitfalls in falling for the AI-led shift in political messaging — not just for the voters but also for the political parties.

According to Naim, the algorithm rewards speed and virality. Likes and retweets may boost confidence, but they don't reflect the ground mood and undercurrents that ultimately decide election results.

“This can be an additional tool for the younger and upcoming sections of the electorate, but it cannot replace traditional door-to-door campaigning — the campaigning in chaupals and at street corners. That is how Indian campaigning works once elections are declared. Reaching out to people directly is, I think, the most effective way in a democracy,” she argued.

Pradhan reiterates that argument and cautions against the echo-chambers that these social media campaigns create and how they can create a false sense of the on-ground mood of the electorate.

“Virality may not necessarily reflect the actual mood of the people. This is all artificially created, mainly to attack somebody. And the quick success that it may receive can do more damage to the political parties as well, making them disconnected with the actual mood on the ground,” Pradhan pointed out.

Vardhan, however, disagrees. “Sentiments play a serious role in elections. If not, then how come onion prices can topple the government?” He, nonetheless, finds the overall scenario concerning, but hopes that something good may come out on the other side of this churn.

Tread with caution

The BJP-SP AI meme war, therefore, points to something larger than an entertaining meme war or simple generational change in political campaigning.

It has weaponised the political parties to launch scathing attacks without worrying about accountability. A political party can distance itself from a particular video while its supporters circulate it. A serious issue can be reduced to a joke before anyone has had time to debate it. A fabricated image can reach a voter before a correction does.

Also Read: Act on obscene content or face action, govt warns social media firms

And there's no escaping this. But for Pradhan, the answer is not to reject AI. “AI is amazing; it can do wonders,” he said. “But where do you draw the line?”

That may be the most important question for Uttar Pradesh's 2027 campaign. Not whether politicians will use AI — they already are — but whether a political system increasingly fluent in memes, trolling, and synthetic images can still make room for the slower business of explaining what it actually wants to do in government.