Donald Trump to Elon Musk: ABVP rolls out AI avatars for DU students’ union poll campaign

Once dominated by campaign posters and graffiti on the walls of North Campus, this year’s DUSU poll campaign has seen a shift to AI-generated celebrities and algorithm-driven endorsements.

This comes after the Delhi High Court came down heavily on candidates last year for defacing public property with election graffiti such as posters and hoardings — it even went on to stay the counting of votes until the defacement was cleaned up. Results were finally declared 1.5 months after the election took place.

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Acting on a petition filed by Advocate Prashant Manchanda, the court had also directed the university to curb the use of wall posters, banners, and hoardings — long-standing hallmarks of traditional campus campaigning.

This time, physical campaigning has been visibly minimised across the campus, with few posters dotting the walls. Student parties have instead opted for reels, memes, and AI to spread their message.

On Aryan Maan’s Instagram feed, who is the ABVP’s presidential pick, ‘Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt’ — an AI version of him — in a black shirt and glasses, declares him the “ummeeidvaar” for the top post.

On Chaudhary’s own page, an avatar of Elon Musk, flanked by a rocket, likens the candidate’s campaign to a launchpad: “Ballot number three… is the only launchpad for DUSU’s future,” he says.

Speaking to The Indian Express, ABVP’s national general secretary Virendra Singh Solanki confirmed that a centralised team of over 60 students is behind the content blitz.

“We have a centralised team of over 60 students from colleges across Delhi who are using various AI tools to generate such videos for our social media campaigning. Our main audience is first-year students, and these are made to draw their attention. Instagram is the main platform where such videos gain attention,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress’s student wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), has not brought this tactic into the elections. Its official Instagram feed remains devoid of AI avatars.

Voting will take place on September 18, and counting of votes is scheduled for September 19.

Last year, NSUI’s Ronak Khatri was elected president and Lokesh Choudhary joint secretary, while ABVP’s Mitravinda Karanwal and Bhanu Pratap Singh won secretary and vice-president posts, respectively.