Of online battles and a ‘clerical error’

The battle for Bengal is hotting up. As the state gears for Assembly polls on 23 and 29 April, the two principal parties in the fray, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP, are going all out — online.

While some are missing the humour and creativity of the sparring campaign songs from 2021 — Trinamool’s Khela Hobe' (the game is on) versus the BJP’s 'Pishi Jao' (goodbye aunty) set to the tune of ‘Bella Ciao’ — the Italian folk song that became an anti-fascist hymn during WW II — this time the sting is sharper as the TMC fights fire with fire.

In 2026, the party has taken the BJP head on with its slogan 'Jotoi koro hamla, abar jitbe Bangla (attack us all you like, Bengal will win again)'. Framing the BJP as 'Bangla-birodhi jamidar (anti-Bengal feudal lords)', the lyrics refer to the BJP’s assaults on religion, language, migrants, the SIR and the NRC, while positioning chief minister Mamata Banerjee as the one who will defend Bengal and Bengali pride. Released in January during the ED raid on the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the three-minute track had garnered 12.8 crore views by March.

The BJP’s four-and-a-half-minute song, which pumps up the narrative of fear, unemployment and black money, received over 216,000 YouTube views in two months.

Their war cry 'Paltano dorkar, chayi BJP sarkar' (we need change, we want a BJP government) — espectrally mouthed in the video by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — has unwittingly provided ammunition for the TMC. Some BJP supporters not conversant with Bangla have been dropping the word chayi, without which the slogan suggests that what needs changing is the BJP government!

Also in the BJP arsenal are 'Bhaag Trinamool bhaag (run Trinamool run)', 'Banchte chayi, BJP tai (BJP, because we want to live)' and 'Jonogon dicchhe daak, Trinamool nipat jak (the people have spoken, Trinamool must be broken).

To counter Mamata Banerjee’s warning that a BJP government would shut down meat and fish vendors during festivals, a BJP candidate from Bidhannagar constituency went viral campaigning with a katla machh (freshwater carp) in his hand. Other BJP candidates, including former MP and columnist Swapan Dasgupta, invited TV channels to join them for lunch and record evidence that fish is always on the table.

With the last dates for nomination being 8 and 12 April, these are early days yet and real fireworks are awaited. While official handles have refrained from personal attacks on Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee, BJP supporters are indulging in a free-for-all on social media with sexual slurs hurled at the chief minister along with death threats. TMC party general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee has pointed to these slurs as revealing ‘the BJP’s true character’, insulting to ‘every woman’ in Bengal.

In short, the battle being waged on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and AI-driven reels is as fierce as the campaigns on the ground. To take on the BJP’s national IT cell and its state-level digital war-room, the Trinamool has quietly built a decentralised social media cell that functions as a crisis-management unit, mini-newsroom and campaign-planning cell rolled into one.

The TMC IT cell has been engaging with cadre and supporters through the mobile app Didi’r Doot (Didi’s messenger), which mobilises, engages, assigns tasks, offers real-time updates as well as interactive quizzes and gamified features to keep users hooked and involved in campaign activities.

Speaking to the Indian Express, Trinamool’s IT cell chief Debangshu Bhattacharya said the key strategy is to impress upon people that the BJP is spreading lies. It’s tit-for-tat: every time the BJP’s IT cell mocks something in Bengal, Trinamool shows the reality in BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

The Indian Express reported (on 23 March) that the TMC social media ecosystem has produced more than 10,000 reels and short videos, disseminated across platforms through a combination of official channels, volunteer networks and independent influencers aligned with the party.

Anand Chowrasia, formerly with I-PAC, told National Herald that the TMC IT cell is entrusted with the task of shaping the daily story through short videos, reels, memes and graphics. These are then pushed through Mamata Banerjee’s own accounts, and by the MLAs, MPs and local workers.

To counter the BJP ‘fake news factory’, the TMC’s IT cell swiftly produces rebuttals, fact-checks and counter-videos. During the 2021 Assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the cell had worked with I-PAC to customise messages for each constituency in the local language, based on local issues and booth-level feedback.

I-PAC associate Sushmita Das recalls that during 'Didi’r 10 Ongikar (Didi’s 10 Pledges)' in 2021, I-PAC had “turned the contest into a highly personalised, data-driven exercise. It ran a CM helpline that received over 23 lakh calls in 500 days, mapped voter feedback, and linked that with booth-level information to identify swing pockets.” Dedicated hashtags, user-generated content and relentless reposting kept the ecosystem alive.

During Didi’r Shopoth (Didi’s Oath) in 2024, I-PAC’s campaign — digital ads, SMS, robocalls, TV/radio spots and social media push — is said to have reached over nine crore people in Bengal. Insiders describe I-PAC as Trinamool’s back-office brain and the IT cell as its front-facing media house.

The BJP’s centralised IT cell, led by Amit Malviya, supervises digital operations from Delhi. It works with in-house social media managers, graphic designers, short-video creators and a network of IT cell workers at state, district and block levels.

In Bengal, the IT cell has been focusing on aggressive messaging that links the TMC to corruption, land grab and the breakdown of law-and-order. Its digital content in Bengal leans heavily on Modi and Amit Shah, with local faces struggling to acquire the same emotional pull.

Debdeep Chakraborty of the BJP’s IT cell says, “Ahead of the 2026 assembly polls, we have rolled out AI-style graphics and narratives using Bengali cultural icons, film characters and religious imagery to reframe the image of the ‘outsider’ as a Bengal-friendly, pro-development national party”.

Senior state BJP leaders admit that the IT cell is now the hub of decision-making, not a message-making machine but a strategy-partner for selecting candidates, scheduling rallies and issues to focus on.

Consultant Ridhi Protim Neogi says, “The BJP’s IT cell still relies more on Central directives and generic messaging; integration with local party machinery and booth-level feedback loops is not as smooth. I-PAC and the TMC IT cell have built a more seamless link between voter-level data and on-ground workers, booth level agents, field teams and 'Didi Ke Bolo' (tell Didi) helplines, feeding real-time information into campaign tweaks.”

Which IT cell will have the last laugh? For that we’ll have to wait till 4 May.

Pardon me, your slip is showing

Meanwhile, ‘Didi’ seized on the ‘clerical error’ that led the chief electoral officer of Kerala to distribute an ECI guideline bearing the BJP seal. If anyone still needs proof that the ECI and BJP are hand in glove, here it is, she said, waving a newspaper report.

When party MPs, MLAs and the social media cell amplified the controversy, cyber police headquarters moved in. MPs like Mahua Moitra were sent stern notices, demanding they take down posts mocking the ECI. Instead, they gleefully reposted the notice that charged them with insulting the Commission, undermining communal harmony and posing threats to public order by inciting division and hostility.

But how did the CEO’s office have the BJP party seal? The best the ECI could manage by way of an explanation is that the BJP had shared a 2019 guideline, which was circulated due to a ‘clerical error’. Ever heard anything more lame?