Mumbai: As Mumbai stands on the brink of the 2026 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the traditional "nukkad" debates have moved from the tea stalls to the Instagram feeds of millions.
With voting scheduled for January 15, a new political force has emerged: the Gen Z "meme-lords."
Memes as Tools
For the city’s youth, memes are no longer just entertainment, they have become a weapon of civic accountability. From the perennial struggle with Mumbai’s potholes to the unending traffic, young voters are using satire to slice through high-decibel political rhetoric.
Digital Guerilla Campaigns
While political heavyweights like Devendra Fadnavis and Uddhav Thackeray are crisscrossing the city with massive roadshows, the youth are engaging in a digital guerilla warfare. Viral reels using trending audio tracks now overlay footage of crater-filled roads to criticise the road conditions. On the other hand, AI-generated videos show comical characters running for the elections from various political parties. A particular Instagram account shows Marvel superhero Hulk as a small-time political worker struggling to get a ticket from the party.
Candidate Collaborations
The trend isn't just about mocking the establishment but about representation. The trend has also witnessed an increase in young candidates getting in a paid collaboration with content creators, running a digital campaign on social media.
As the curtains fell on campaigning, one thing is clear that whether the memes translate into a higher voter turnout remains to be seen, but they have undeniably changed the language of the Mumbai civic polls forever.
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