Sonia Gandhi pulled into BJP-Congress AI meme battle over viral retro photo trend
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Meme shared by Congress’s Keralam unit with the caption “A Gujarat street in the 80s.”
A fresh social media clash between the BJP and Congress has drawn senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi into a political meme war centred on the viral 1980s photo trend.
The controversy began after the Congress’s Keralam unit shared an AI-generated image showing a man seated in the front passenger seat of a Maruti Suzuki Omni. The image was captioned, “A Gujarat street in the 80s.”
In response, the BJP’s Gujarat unit posted an offensive AI-generated image depicting Sonia Gandhi in revealing clothes, holding a glass of alcohol and standing alongside foreigners in what appeared to be a bar. The post was later removed.
The BJP units in Keralam and Telangana also shared images targeting the Congress leader, although their posts were less explicit. The Telangana BJP uploaded a picture of a woman dancing in a bar with the caption, “Lusiana, Italy. Circa-1970s.” Sonia Gandhi was born and raised in Lusiana, Italy.
Meme shared by BJP Keralam unit with the caption “Head office of some old political party in the 1960s, and everyone knows which one!”
The Maruti Omni reference appeared to draw on the vehicle’s long-standing association with Bollywood films of the 1980s, where it was frequently portrayed as a getaway vehicle used by criminals and kidnappers. This later contributed to its popular depiction as a “kidnapping van” in memes.
Several political leaders have joined the viral AI-driven 1980s photo trend, which has also featured Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, among others.
The trend involves using AI tools to transform contemporary photographs into retro-style portraits inspired by the fashion, hairstyles and photography of the 1980s.
Users generally upload a photograph and provide a prompt asking the AI tool to create an authentic period-style image while retaining the person’s recognisable facial features.