Poll campaign goes digital with animation and satire
The Statesman | 10 April 2026
The digital space has emerged as a key warzone, propelled by hi-tech storytelling, innovative drama, biting satire and rib-tickling fun as Bengal’s political opponents battle it out online to woo the young and the uninitiated ahead of the Assembly polls.
Kickstarting their respective digital outreach, the reigning Trinamul Congress has fallen back on its old animation series “Fighter Didi”, while the principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has opted for animated visuals and brief dramatised clips.
In contrast, the erstwhile rulers, Left Front spearhead Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has taken the comedy route through its parody show “Podcast by Poltu”.
The TMC’s “Fighter Didi” appears in two-minute-long clips on the party’s official YouTube channel. It presents Trinamul chief and state chief minister Mamata Banerjee as a combative, larger-than-life figure taking on rivals to shield Bengal’s disadvantaged communities.
A similar animated format had also been rolled out ahead of the 2021Assembly elections. In addition to this, the party has extensively used memes and satire to target opposition leaders.
The BJP’s visuals and clips depict what it claims are the challenges faced by people across the state. The material is usually tagged with the hashtag “Paltano Dorkar Chai BJP Sarkar,” (Change is of the essence, we need a BJP government), highlighting its campaign for change.
The CPI-M’s “Podcast by Poltu” series features a made-up host named Poltu engaging in witty exchanges with exaggerated versions of political personalities, employing light-hearted satire to drive home the party’s message.
TMC’s West Bengal state in-charge for Social Media and IT Cell, Debangshu Bhattacharya, says the party’s digital campaign rests on four pillars ~ “Avoiding misinformation, highlighting governance achievement, projecting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s crisis-time leadership and framing the contest as one between our love for Bengal and BJP’s ego to win Bengal “.
In contrast, BJP’s West Bengal Social Media Convener Saptarshi Chowdhury says his party’s campaign focuses on highlighting alleged governance failures in the state. “Our party’s outreach is shaped by on-ground developments in West Bengal. We believe a ‘maha jungle raj’ prevails and we bring these issues directly to the public through social media.”
Abin Mitra, a senior member of the CPI-M’s state social media campaign team, however, has a different take. According to him, the party is adopting a platform-specific approach to communicate its ideological positions.
“For youngsters, we are tailoring content in the form of reels, which will immediately draw their attention but for people who belong to the older age group, we are creating long form contents, more detailed and more information-centric,” he adds.
Asked about the target audience, TMC’s engineer-turned-youth leader Bhattacharya underscores that for any party, the campaign is aimed at the “floating voters or voters who are yet to make up their mind”
But Chowdhury chooses to differ, highlighting the BJP’s campaign as one focussed on all sections of voters.
TMC’s animated series uses different caricatured and exaggerated versions of opponents, picturing them as beetles, mouse and bedbugs, to make the message comprehensible to the audience.
In a contrasting strategy, the BJP has adopted a straightforward approach by using enacted episodes, making those more relatable.
The CPI-M, however, has kept things more light-hearted, letting Poltu question these overstated representations of politicians about real-life events and comments that have become almost synonymous with the personalities being lampooned.
Bhattacharya says satire and animated content are used to break down complex political ideas for younger voters. He claims the party’s online campaign is backed by more than five lakh volunteers working largely in honorary capacities.
He describes the party’s communication style as “human-centric”, relying on indirect references and interactive content to engage users.
“We rely on AI-generated videos, documentary-style content and satire to convey our message, as these formats help us connect with diverse audiences, including Gen Z voters,” says Chowdhury, highlighting the use of creative formats to reach younger voters.
Queried about the communication style, Mitra stresses realism. “Our effort is to present the situation on the ground as it is. We refrain from unrealistic assurances and prioritise issue-based outreach over gimmicks.”
According to Bhattacharya, the TMC would focus on winning over undecided voters and strengthening its development-centric message ahead of the polls. “We place comparisons before them, in infrastructure, social security, electricity and development, so that they can relate.”
States BJP’s Chowdhury, “Our social media outreach will repeatedly emphasise issues like job relaxation, implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission and broader governance reforms.”
Looking ahead, Mitra says the party would project local concerns. “We follow the mantra vocal for local, so our campaign is being shaped around local priorities, including roads, drinking water and the concerns of tea garden communities.”