Politicians and supporters from India’s BJP and Congress are taking part in a fast-spreading social media meme trend that uses AI to transform contemporary photos into stylized 1980s-era portraits. The posts typically present leaders in a retro look, and the trend quickly shifts from novelty to political satire, with users turning the images into vehicles for jabs at opponents.
According to outlets, high-profile figures from both parties have participated by sharing or amplifying these AI-generated visuals. Times of India highlights BJP and Congress figures such as Piyush Goyal and Kiren Rijiju, and notes that Rahul Gandhi also joins in with similar quirky, retro-themed images. Mint similarly reports that as the retro-style sharing gained momentum, both sides and their supporters flooded social media with the vintage images directed at political rivals.
While both sources describe the same basic phenomenon—AI-assisted 1980s portrait transformations used for satire—they differ mainly in emphasis: Times of India frames the development as an “all-out meme war” involving named leaders, while Mint focuses more on how the trend escalates into a BJP-versus-Congress exchange on social platforms.
