She is not a real person, but a digital human created by artificial intelligence.
The videos, uploaded to Metaplatform and X’s INCTamilNadu handle since January, are part of a broader push towards technology-driven campaigning as political parties prepare for assembly elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry.
“We have named her Lakamma. She talks about Congress policies and why people should support the party,” said Nabil Ahmed, chairman, Social Media and Digital Platforms, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. “In February alone, we had approximately 68 million views across platforms.”
The move also reflects a broader shift towards AI-powered political action.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have significantly expanded their social media presence as the campaign intensifies. The official BJP handle has around 17 million followers on Facebook and 8.6 million followers on Instagram, while the Congress has around 10 million followers on Facebook and 12.4 million followers on Instagram.
A significant portion of the digital content pushed by political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) in this election was powered by AI tools, party insiders and experts say.
The Tamil Nadu Congress’ AI-driven video campaign is the latest initiative adopted under Ahmed, who took charge of the party’s social media operations in December. “We first created an AI character in Puducherry. After it gained traction, we replicated the model in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The party is also working with a combination of internal and external teams to expand content production. “We work with 30 to 35 members of an external team to create campaign content,” says Ahmed.
The BJP has maintained an active and controversial presence on social media well before the elections.
In Assam, the state unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a backlash in February over a video posted on its official handle. The video showed a stylized sequence of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma firing an air gun at two men wearing skullcaps. The video, which was captioned “point-blank range shooting,” was later deleted after receiving criticism.
Despite such controversies, the Bharatiya Janata Party has maintained a strong and expanded presence on social media. While the Assam sector is very active, Bengal’s handles on meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram have shown even higher engagement, with a combined follower count of over 3 million, significantly more than those of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
This will be the first election in which Toyota Motor Corporation has utilized AI in election activities. “But that is only 20-25 per cent of our total campaign content. We are mainly dependent on our leader Mamata Banerjee and her speeches play a big role in leading the campaign,” said Dora Sen, president of the National Trinamool Trade Union Congress.
regional flavor
Each party is adapting its digital strategy to local circumstances.
“States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu follow a different strategy compared to the north Indian states. To connect with people and convey the right intentions, content needs to be created in local languages,” said Abhijit Radhakrishnan Nair, BJP’s social media and IT convenor for Kerala. “While executions are primarily handled at the state level, the broader story comes from the national team.”
Regional parties are primarily deploying AI in video content that highlights their achievements or criticizes rival governments. The DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, is using technology to understand the demographics of voters and provide targeted communications.
Tamil Nadu Industries Minister TRB Rajaa said the DMK has launched tnmanifesto.ai, an AI-powered platform to crowdsource public opinion for election manifesto. “It integrates suggestions from calls, WhatsApp and websites, categorizes them by sector and helps interpret data across a diverse population,” he said. “AI also enables targeted communications, speech reuse, personalized voice calls, and automated WhatsApp outreach.”
He said party leaders are using AI-based applications to design and edit clips and create posters, adding that these tools are helping improve productivity.
Distribution strategies vary. In Kerala, the Congress relies less on AI-driven content on public social media feeds and instead drives large shares through closed networks.
“Not all the content is shared on the official page and some is distributed via WhatsApp groups managed by the party’s digital task force,” said Vijay Sottashir, a member of the state’s social media team. “This network is working from the parliamentary level to districts, panchayats and booths and has been in place for three years.”
“AI was not used in the last election, and now we are already seeing an increase in viewership,” Tottasil said. “Leaders, including opposition parties, are becoming more effective in their counter-arguments, which is driving engagement.”
Impact is limited at this time
Despite the increasing use of AI-driven content, experts say AI’s impact on elections is limited at this stage.
“AI tools can help accelerate research and planning, but final decisions still rely on field studies and traditional research. Regardless of technological advances, human intelligence will continue to drive political strategy,” said Tamil Nadu Minister Rajyaa.
Jeethu Shivakumar, founder of Pace, a digital marketing agency based in Kerala, said voters may not be engaging enough with AI-generated content.
“Many people would like to see real leaders rather than synthetic visuals. Such content is gaining traction online, but it is too early to say it will have a significant impact on election results,” she said. “But AI could be a big factor in the future.”
One of the biggest advantages of AI is its ability to recreate past politicians and revive historical issues, which is gaining traction in this Kerala election, she added.
According to Shivakumar, producing a one-minute AI-generated video can cost between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. Most political parties maintain in-house teams while working with external agencies to create content.
