Chandigarh, June 18: As the campaign dust settles in Ludhiana West, a new front in the bypoll battle rages on — not on the streets, but across smartphone screens. Despite the official end to public canvassing this evening, a flurry of unofficial social media pages continues to bombard the 1.82 lakh voters with relentless political attacks, memes, and AI-generated satire aimed at rivals in the fray.
The online onslaught, coming from anonymous or surrogate pages with names like Aapdaaddapunjab, shurliexpress, jattgptofficial, and sada_ashubai, is filled with videos and animations targeting candidates from all four major parties — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). These clips often mimic real voices using AI, fabricating confessions or sarcastic apologies from leaders about their alleged involvement in extortion, gangster links, or political opportunism — issues frequently whispered in public discourse but never proven.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), although vigilant, admits limitations in reining in this surge of digital content. “So far, no complaints have been received against the official social media accounts of any candidate or party,” said Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, Sibin C. “However, we’ve acted on reports regarding defamatory material on an unofficial Facebook page. The Ludhiana Police have been directed to probe the matter, and are currently awaiting a response from Facebook’s Law Enforcement division.”
Per election norms, campaigning — including activity on official digital platforms — is required to cease 48 hours prior to voting. Yet, these “proxy pages” operate in a grey zone, evading direct linkage to political candidates while continuing to push narratives that could influence voters during the mandated silence period.
All parties seem to have vested interests in the outcome of this bypoll, which is being widely seen as a bellwether for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections. Determined to shape perceptions, party strategists appear to have embraced both official and unofficial channels to amplify their messaging.
The digital battleground is not the only space seeing unprecedented action. The ECI has reportedly received a record 1,500 complaints related to the Ludhiana West contest, which officials are calling the “Mother of all political battles” in Punjab. Of these, 1,300 were addressed within 100 minutes on the Commission’s cVigil app — a public-facing grievance redressal platform. A majority of the complaints pertain to breaches in the candidate expenditure cap, set at ₹40 lakh.
As election day nears, voters in Ludhiana West remain glued to their phones, not for party manifestos or candidate speeches, but for sharp-edged satire and digital skirmishes. For the Election Commission, this hybrid war — part human, part algorithm — may prove even more complex than traditional poll policing.
