The ongoing tussle among three Congress Chief Minister aspirants after the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) historic Assembly mandate has unleashed a tsunami of trolls and memes across social media.
From rib-tickling to downright biting, the menu of satire catered to every palate. “For the UDF government, the CM’s chair is no longer a chair but a bench,” read one meme, complete with a bench photo, mocking the multiple contenders.
Another showed V.D. Satheesan, K.C. Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala decked as royalty with the caption: “War paused for the third day since the sun has set,” a cheeky nod to the Kurukshetra war breaks in Hindu epic Mahabharata
Actor Bijukuttan starred in a troll as a worried Pinarayi Vijayan, fretting whether he’d be caretaker CM for five years. A film clip of Ganesh Kumar counting cash cast him as a flex-printing owner. This was an obvious hint at the windfall from the “flex war” among rival camps of Congress across the State.
One meme simply crowned “K.C. Satheesh Chennithala” as Kerala’s new CM — an imaginative and outright hilarious mash-up of all three names. Another had Jagathy Sreekumar and the late Mamukkoya as voters from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, chatting over electoral outcome. “Here seats are ready, fight is on for CM,” says Jagathy to which Mamukkoya retorts, “Here, we have CM ready, but seats are short.”
The more creative came up with Artificial Intelligence generated videos as well. A viral video reimagined the Harikrishnans song sequence, swapping Mohanlal and Mammootty with Satheesan and Chennithala, before Venugopal crash-lands crooning a Bollywood melody.
The Left Democratic Front, which was voted out, wasn’t spared either. A clip from the popular movie Thalavattam cast Jagathy as a CPI(M) supporter pleading with Mohanlal, showed as a UDF supporter, to spare at least the seats as predicted by exit-polls. Another meme recast the heroes from the blockbuster movie In Harihar Nagar as LDF loyalists dissecting defeat, with Jagadeesh’s hilarious character Appukuttan coming up with a conclusion that, maybe Bevco outlets remaining closed on polling day did the front in.