Tamil Nadu: Political Parties IT Wing gearing up with tech ahead of Lok Sabha elections

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 1 : Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Bharatiya Janata Party--all three major political parties have set up a war room for the IT Wing across Tamil Nadu to coordinate the campaign on social media and use of technology in campaigning.
With one System, an internet connection, DSLR cameras, and basic tools such as After Effects, Photoshop and FCP, Premium Pro, and Face Change AI to create photos and video memes, a group of young cadres of all party IT wings are working tirelessly to propagate their party policies on social media ahead of elections.
Speaking about the IT Wing's Role, DMK IT Wing Secretary TRB Raja said, "DMK IT Wing to use proper legal tech and we're going to responsibly use AI. A lot of good technology is available and we will use it as per ECI regulations".
"With proper permission, AI can be used. We have a war room in Chennai DMK headquarters. Every Parliament constituency has a war room. In all six constituencies, we have separate people working. From Party HQ to the constituency, all are working. We already have enough hard-core party cadres and Social Media is very important to the public. I would say that the reach of social media alone will not win the election; fieldwork is also important," he added.
Basic stuff like a DSLR camera has become mandatory for leaders to campaign on their own and provide on social media platforms. Some leaders are also using hyper-slow-mo cameras to capture moments during the campaign.
Central Chennai DMK MP Candidate Dayanidhi Maran's social media platform is filled with slow-motion videos of his campaign to attract voters on social media. Likewise, Drones are also being used in all campaigns to give some good aerial shots of the campaign
In DMK Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and DMK Thoothukudi candidate Kanimozhi's campaign, importance has been given to capturing the audience's emotions.
AIADMK IT Wing Office Bearer CTR Nirmal Kumar told ANI, "Assembly and booth level meetings have been done for IT Wing. IT wing is an organised structure. Two IT personnel per booth have been nominated. Training for these cadres has been going on for the last year. We have trained them how to take positive content from the party to the public and social media users."
"At a minimum, like one per cent, we took outsiders for technology-related work. 99 per of our cadres are being used in the IT Wing. Jayalaitha's speeches have been done on AI technology. Whatever tools we adapt, we will use them," he added.
Since the announcement of the Lok Sabha election date, DMK, AIADMK and BJP IT wings have come up with video memes, colourful cards, and songs for their parties to reach the voters via social media platforms.
All parties have set up an IT wing war room across districts to reach their party policies and ideology among the voters. Besides reposting their Party leader's speeches, the IT wing came up with a lot of infamous videos of their opponent.
DMK has posted an explainer video of BJP and their alleged connection with violence and cases on them. Likewise, BJP and AIADMK posted videos of past elections of DMK promises which are all yet to be fulfilled.
During a campaign, AIADMK used big LED screens to showcase the old speeches of DMK Leaders and their promises which were yet to be fulfilled. AIADMK and BJP have a tagline to their profile names in X Platform as AIADMK uses 'Say no to Drug, say no to DMK' whereas BJP uses 'Modi Ka Parivar'.
Likewise, speaking to ANI on the phone, Balaji M S (BJP Social Media Cell State President) said, "Across districts, we have set up a war room. Moreover, we have made connections with each candidate to promote them on social media with video content. We also make videos of beneficiaries and how they benefited from PM Modi's schemes and list out the achievements of the BJP government".