Kolkata: With the assembly polls closing in, the Trinamool Congress has intensified its digital campaign with Artificial Intelligence (AI) being leveraged to amplify the campaign narratives throughout the state.
An analogy with ‘Gabbar Singh’, the iconic antagonist from Bollywood blockbuster Sholay was taken after local residents in coalfield areas shut doors on Asansol BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari when he reached the area. Reels were surfaced portraying Tiwari as ‘Gabbar’.
Trinamool Congress satirically stated that in the movie too, the villagers were shown fleeing in fear of ‘Gabbar’. Tiwari, on the other hand, accused the TMC’s Pandaveswar MLA Narendranath Chakraborty of not carrying out development projects which he had inaugurated as Chakraborty’s predecessor.
The ‘Gabbar’ analogy recently found relevance after former CPI(M) leader Pratikur Rahaman who has recently joined Trinamool Congress, compared CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim with the main villain of the Sholay movie.
AI have started taking the centre stage in this year’s Assembly poll campaigns gradually with the ruling party preparing reels, creating cartoons. Interestingly, the digital warriors of the ruling party have already prepared AI driven video clips where the sitting BJP MLA from Asansol south Agnimitra Paul was also shown. Paul was accused of prolonged absence from her constituency.
Trinamool Congress has started a digital campaign “Didibhai, tomar dekha nai” (Sister, you are missing) drawing attention to the local discontent over the MLA’s alleged inaccessibility. Using AI-generated music and videos, Paul was portrayed as a ‘missing MLA’. A 27 seconds video went viral showing Paul unable to name the locality she was campaigning in during her ‘Paray Paray Didibhai’ drive.
Trinamool Congress had launched a campaign called ‘Ami Banglar Digital Joddha’ (I am Bengal’s digital warrior), to give a call to the youth of the state to join forces and “let the world witness what Bengal can achieve when its people rise as one.” The aim was to counter the lies and propaganda, increasingly in the digital space where the election battle now rages.