India’s vibrant democratic landscape has always been marked by theatrics: mass rallies, passionate speeches, and intensive door-to-door campaigning. Yet, the past decade has witnessed this traditional electoral model intertwine significantly with digital platforms, giving rise to a phenomenon of ‘infodemic’. While the word initially referred to the deluge of misleading information during the COVID-19 crisis, it now applies equally well to the continual onslaught of propaganda, half-truths, and outright falsehoods in political communication.
This new-age electoral dynamic, meticulously analysed by Joyojeet Pal, Azhagu Meena, Drupa Dinnie Charles and Anmol Panda, manifests most visibly in private messaging spaces like WhatsApp, placing targeted propaganda directly into users’ hands and everyday conversations. The turning point emerged distinctly during the 2014 general elections, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi leveraged social media effectively, notably X (then Twitter), to bypass traditional media gatekeepers.
With internet penetration in India now reaching about 88 crore users and WhatsApp itself boasting over 59 crore active accounts, digital strategies have become indispensable campaign tools. Researchers Kiran Garimella and Dean Eckles highlight how manipulated images and misleading messages infiltrate local networks rapidly, outpacing fact-checking efforts.
Infiltrating community spaces
Central to the political infodemic is the covert infiltration of private WhatsApp groups, which were initially formed for community or casual interactions. These spaces have become prime targets for propaganda.
Local activists frequently compile voter lists, adding unsuspecting citizens into WhatsApp groups cleverly disguised as community forums, Resident Welfare Associations, or hobbyist groups. These groups gradually disseminate politically charged messages, embedding subtle propaganda into everyday interactions. Pal et al., emphasise how effectively these messages spread.
Once they permeate small groups, mainstream media often pick up these trends, amplifying their reach and lending them credibility. The result is a rapid transition from localised misinformation to national headlines, significantly altering public perception.
The WhatsApp Pramukh model
A highly organised mechanism drives these digital strategies. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s implementation of ‘WhatsApp Pramukhs’, as analysed by researcher Divish Joshi, exemplifies this structured approach. These Pramukhs manage digital communications at local levels, systematically categorising voters based on caste, religion, economic status, and other demographics. They then distribute carefully crafted content—memes, videos, and doctored images—aligned with party agendas.
Local booth workers, often acting as WhatsApp Pramukhs, monitor content effectiveness meticulously, tracking engagement through forwards and responses. Messages that resonate well are swiftly amplified across multiple groups, creating a powerful ripple effect. Political leaders leverage these strategies deliberately, ensuring that their talking points penetrate deeply into community dialogues.
Data-driven targeting and profiling
Hyperlocal influence hinges significantly on sophisticated voter profiling. Parties purchase or obtain voter data, analysing it to identify community affiliations, regional issues, and ideological leanings. This data informs the creation of targeted WhatsApp groups tailored to specific demographic or interest cohorts.
Telangana’s recent Assembly elections exemplify such micro-targeting. The Congress successfully cultivated digital volunteer networks, strategically highlighting agrarian distress and electricity costs to discredit incumbents, significantly impacting rural voter sentiment. Conversely, the BJP leveraged community-based groups, circulating nationalist and Hindutva-centric appeals.
Garimella and Eckles note rampant image-based disinformation, including old protest images repurposed against political rivals, proliferating unchecked in these groups and effectively polarising local communities.
Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) claimed oversight of approximately 1.5 lakh WhatsApp groups. These groups delivered hyper-targeted content focusing on caste affiliations, regional disparities, and unemployment, responding dynamically to voter reactions. The rival Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) employed a comparable digital apparatus through its “Team Jagananna” app, addressing voter queries and emphasising party achievements. This targeted digital rivalry deeply influenced local voter behaviour, often exacerbating existing social divides.
Five elections, one strategy
Across various Indian States, digital tactics exhibit distinct regional adaptations while retaining overarching strategies
In Telangana, the Congress harnessed digital volunteers to emphasise voter concerns effectively, whereas the BJP ran covert community-centric campaigns emphasising religious sentiments.
For the Andhra Pradesh elections, TDP’s extensive WhatsApp group network focused intensely on caste and regional identities, employing strategic misinformation campaigns around sensitive issues like land rights. The YSRCP mirrored these strategies with equal efficiency albeit less effectively, promoting welfare initiatives and undermining Opposition narratives.
In the Maharashtra elections, the BJP, notably under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, projected infrastructural achievements through tailored digital campaigns. The Opposition responded with counter-narratives, though not without missteps—such as sharing misleading visuals that were quickly debunked.
As for the Haryana elections, BJP activists infiltrated community groups with narratives emphasising caste consolidation and strong leadership, embedding propaganda subtly into local traditions and folklore. The Congress struggled to match this grassroots approach, highlighting a significant disparity in digital reach.
For the Delhi elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP fiercely contested through AI-generated memes and viral content, with each party rapidly disseminating targeted narratives to specific demographic segments. BJP’s “Sheesh Mahal” narrative contrasted with AAP’s pointed criticism of governance issues, demonstrating the potency of rapid digital dissemination.
Incentivising digital volunteer armies
Recognising the significance of motivated digital cadres, parties have invested in incentivisation mechanisms. The BJP has launched multiple apps—Kamal Connect, Saral App, and Nation with Namo—to assign tasks, track volunteer performance, and maintain competitive leaderboards, enhancing volunteer engagement through gamification.
Similarly, the Congress rewarded Telangana volunteers contributing to electoral success with digital smart cards offering insurance and potential party roles. Regional parties like TDP and YSRCP have also developed sophisticated digital volunteer management systems, using real-time feedback to refine their outreach.
Democratic implications, challenges
As Pal et al., stress, digital platforms have merged irrevocably with traditional electoral campaigning. This fusion erodes distinctions between overt advertising and covert propaganda, creating fertile ground for manipulative political communication.
Garimella and Eckles warn that encrypted private channels like WhatsApp accelerate the spread of unchecked misinformation, overpowering fact-checking efforts due to sheer volume and speed. The broader democratic implications are profound. When misinformation saturates personal conversations, it skews voter perceptions and potentially compromises electoral integrity, making informed democratic choices challenging. Effective countermeasures depend significantly on civil society vigilance, independent journalism, and informed citizen activism to expose and counter manipulative strategies.
What next?
The future promises intensified battles over digital influence, as parties continuously refine methods to dominate encrypted spaces. India’s infodemic symbolises a broader global trend where digital micro-targeting increasingly shapes electoral outcomes subtly yet decisively.
Although fact-checking organisations exist, they struggle to match the speed and volume of viral content. Also, when half-truths are deployed in a war of narratives, fact-checking has a chequered impact.
The choice before Indian democracy is clear: heightened vigilance and proactive intervention to safeguard electoral integrity or passive acceptance of digital manipulation as a new political norm. Ultimately, preserving genuine democratic engagement hinges on collective responsibility—by alert citizens, proactive media, and responsive civil society—in mitigating the corrosive effects of unchecked digital propaganda.
Without widespread watchfulness, the infodemic will continue to flourish, subtly nudging millions of citizens in directions they might never have chosen through genuine, open discourse.
Vignesh Karthik K.R. is a postdoctoral research fellow of Indian and Indonesian politics at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies – Leiden.
Aakansha Tandon is a political consultant based in the NCR.
Published – April 23, 2025 08:30 am IST