A young couple with a baby is stranded in a remote village. The husband, who left his laptop behind for a break, has an official deadline to meet. With panic and anxiety getting better of him, the wife appears, spots a group of students cycling past, and asks an unlikely question: “Can we find a good laptop here?” Students smile at each other, unzip their bags, and pull out high-end laptops. Minutes later, the work is done. “Thanks for saving my day,” the husband says, relief palpable in his voice. “Thank our Thalaiavar,” students reply as they rode away. As the video pans out, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s voice follows, spotlighting the state’s free laptop scheme for 1 million students.
Four burglars break into a house in the dead of the night, fumbling in the dark. A young girl and her father come from behind. “There’s nothing to steal,” the father says – lamenting on how rising costs, from inflated house tax to electricity bills, have wiped out their savings over the past five years. “Beware of the price rise. Think before you vote,” the ad signs off, urging support for the AIADMK.
These are among dozens of sharply-scripted ads flooding smart TVs and mobile screens in Tamil Nadu in the last few weeks as the political battle intensifies ahead of the Assembly polls.
“Today, you can’t open a YouTube video in Chennai without seeing a political ad, particularly from the DMK,” says political analyst Sumanth C Raman, pointing to the growing focus on younger voters, especially amid the entry and popularity of actor-turned-politician Vijay.
From Chennai to Kolkata
But the trend is not confined to the southern state. From West Bengal and Assam to Kerala and Puducherry, political parties are rolling out snappy digital campaigns, mixing welfare messaging with attacks on political rivals over inflation, unemployment, and governance issues, to influence households and first-time voters.
In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s campaign song “Je Lorche Sobar Daake” racked up 158 million views on YouTube within eight days of its launch. “Je Lorche Sobar Daake is now the most-viewed political campaign song in the world, the fastest political video to cross 100 million views on YouTube, and India’s second-most viewed political video of all time,” the All India Trinamool Congress said on X.
For political strategists, the shift is deliberate. “Online advertising has become a core part of the brand kit for political parties, especially those aspiring to position themselves correctly among young voters,” says Harish Bijoor, a brand guru and founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. “The more you are seen in digital media and repeating the same stunts through different creatives, the more it builds you brand.”
Political parties know this well. From the BJP and Congress to regional players like the DMK, AIADMK, TMC and the Left in Kerala have together spent over ₹150 crore on digital ads in the past three months.
Digital War Chest
Data from Google’s Ad Transparency Center show that ₹91 crore has been spent across more than 18,000 ads since January 1. Meta platforms logged over ₹63 crore in political ad spending between early January and April 4.
While overall ad spends may seem modest for high-stakes state battles, digital campaigns show that even small budgets can deliver an outsized reach. For instance, Indian PAC recently spent just ₹1.5–1.75 lakh on an animated campaign targeting the BJP in West Bengal. The video clocked around 4 million views in just two days, as per Google’s Ad Transparency Center.
YouTube and Instagram are flush with hundreds of such campaigns from national and regional parties with spends ranging from as high as ₹10 lakh per ad to just a few hundred rupees. “Digital is a one-on-one medium,” Bijoor says. “The moment you start making campaigns curated to this media, you get a far bigger bang for your buck.”
Beyond paid ads, parties are also building ecosystems of YouTube channels and social media pages to push their narratives throughout the year, attack rivals, and shape perception well before polling day, Raman adds.
Millions of voters across Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have already watched, scrolled past, or sat through these messages.
On May 4, it will be decided which of these campaigns did catch voter fancy the most.