Ludhiana (W) bypoll:Battle moves to cyberspace as warriors defy ‘silence period’

As the high-decibel campaign in the Ludhiana West constituency came to an end this evening, numerous social media handles, that have cropped up in support of candidates and their parties in the election fray, continue to fire political salvos at their opponents.

The political battle in cyberspace is now enthralling the voters of the constituency through their mobile devices, rather than being played out in the open. While the content posted by these handles against the candidates is apparently defamatory, based on hearsay, the Election Commission of India finds itself in a bind in controlling the continuous flow of content, as these are not the official handles of either the party or the candidates.

Since the four main political parties in the fray – AAP, Congress, BJP and SAD – have high stakes in the bypoll, apparently believing that the outcome will set the tone for the 2027 Assembly elections, they are leaving no stone unturned to project their own candidates in good light, while denouncing the opponents.

As per the rules, campaigning, including on social media official handles, should stop 48 hours before elections are held, but these “surrogate pages” are keeping the 1.82 lakh voters of the Ludhiana West Assembly segment entertained even during the Silence Period.

From handles named “Aapdaaddapunjab”, “shurliexpress”, “jattgptofficial’, “sada_ ashubai”, AI-generated videos of top leaders of all political parties are ridiculing them for not fulfilling their promises or even on their political antics of the past, with a commentary thrown in or for their inadvertent slip of tongue. Some of these handles, on both Facebook and Instagram platforms, also have put out animated videos of political leaders “admitting” to wrongdoings like extortions, threatening officials, being involved with gangsters, or complaining about being forced to throw their hat in the electoral arena, things they are often accused of in public domain, but have never been proven.

Talking to The Tribune, Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, Sibin C said that they are regularly monitoring the social media and following the ECI protocol on the issue. “So far, no complaints have been received against any party’s or candidates’ official social media handles. However, we have received some complaints about defamatory content posted on a particular Facebook page and we have asked the Ludhiana Police to investigate the matter. The police are awaiting response from Facebook Law Enforcement Agency,” he said.

Meanwhile, considering the political battle in Ludhiana West is being considered as “Mother of political battles”, the ECI has received the highest-ever number of complaints regarding violations in this election. As many as 1,500 complaints have been received, of which 1,300 were resolved within 100 minutes of being filed on cVigil portal of the ECI. It is learnt that the maximum number of complaints received are regarding overshooting of the expenditure limit of candidates (it is Rs 40 lakh for a candidate).

     AI-generated videos galore

From handles named ‘Aapdaaddapunjab’, ‘shurliexpress’, ‘jattgptofficial’, ‘sada_ ashubai’, AI-generated videos of top leaders of all political parties are ridiculing them for not fulfilling their promises or even on their political antics of the past, with a commentary thrown in or for their inadvertent slip of tongue.

Ludhiana