Chandigarh: Punjab’s political battleground has presently taken an uncommon type: Jurassic Park. The political discourse has turned away from governance, coverage, financial system, and regulation and order, in direction of dinosaurs.

It might have begun as a political jibe by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann throughout the early levels of his tenure—mocking the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) as a relic of the previous—however the beleaguered SAD has spun it round right into a “comeback” narrative, with a collection of AI memes and social media posts highlighting its efficiency within the Tarn Taran byelection and Zila Parishad polls.

“Punjab ch dinosaur vaapis aa sakde ne, Akali nahi (dinosaurs can return to Punjab, however the Akalis can not),” Mann had been saying over the previous few years. A number of such statements by Mann resurfaced in 2025—each in rallies and speeches, quickly coming into the political discourse and circulating extensively on-line.

In response, the Akalis have, in current weeks, rolled out a full-blown digital meme marketing campaign, with certainly one of its standard traces being: “Tu pher aen kari, Punjab ch dinosaur vi aange te Akali vee; saambh sakde ho te saambh leyo (you wait and watch, each dinosaurs and Akalis will return to Punjab; deal with them for those who can).”

In a single AI-generated clip, get together chief Sukhbir Badal walks confidently with a dinosaur, with a plaque saying “2027” hanging from its neck, a pointed reference to the get together’s declare that it’s going to win the 2027 meeting polls.

But it surely didn’t take lengthy for the chief minister to fireside again on the SAD marketing campaign, claiming the get together’s revival after years within the political wilderness. His response? “The Akalis wish to take Punjab again to the Jurassic period, not in direction of progress.”

“It’s a lizard blown up as a dinosaur,” the chief minister quipped at a press convention final week.

The Aam Aadmi Celebration’s (AAP) social media community additionally launched a meme exhibiting a lizard being blown up right into a dinosaur, with Mann towering over it and Badal.

Because the “Jurassic” narrative permeates Punjab politics, the Congress has termed the marketing campaign “foolish”. The state get together chief, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, mentioned in an interview with a YouTube channel final week, “Individuals won’t vote for the Akalis as a result of they’re seeing Sukhbir being proven as shifting round with a chained dinosaur; folks may vote for them out of sheer sympathy.”

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The way it all started

Mann’s dinosaur metaphor dates again to his political campaigns between 2022 and 2024, when he repeatedly likened the SAD management to dinosaurs, suggesting they had been irrelevant in up to date Punjab politics, very like the extinct species.

The metaphor was meant to underline that the period dominated by the Badal political household was over and that SAD was now not a power to reckon with within the state’s political future.

In 2025, a lot of Mann’s traces resurfaced, and his jibe that “dinosaurs could return, however the Badals gained’t come again to energy” caught the favored political creativeness.

Inspired by Tarn Taran bypoll outcomes, the place the Akali Dal completed second, SAD strategically embraced the imagery and turned it right into a constructive narrative.

The marketing campaign acquired additional enhance after the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti election outcomes final week, the place the Akalis carried out properly in Bathinda, Faridkot and Muktsar.

Quickly, SAD posted a collection of visuals and reels on Instagram and Fb, exhibiting dinosaurs alongside Badal, with tongue-in-cheek captions implying that dinosaurs are returning to life in Punjab, simply because the get together is.

The get together’s Tarn Taran workforce launched an AI-generated meme exhibiting Badal driving a tractor trolley carrying younger dinosaurs.

A number of quick follow-up clips circulated on Instagram, juxtaposing prehistoric reptilian imagery with scenes from Badal’s rallies and marketing campaign moments, reframing Mann’s jibe into certainly one of resurgence.

Different AI visuals present Badal driving a dinosaur chasing Mann or a “SAD” dinosaur crushing a brush—AAP’s election image—beneath its foot, as a symbolic illustration of the get together’s political “comeback”.

Akali supporters have additionally launched movies of their automobiles embellished with plastic toy dinosaurs. A supporter even went as much as Badal and gifted him a toy dinosaur as he arrived for a public assembly following the Zila Parishad outcomes.

Why SAD is pushing the dinosaur narrative now

Political watchers say the shift in SAD’s messaging comes in opposition to the backdrop of the get together’s current electoral positive factors. Within the Tarn Taran bypoll, SAD completed second—a marked enchancment after its poor 2022 meeting and 2024 parliamentary election exhibiting.

Within the Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections this month, SAD additionally improved its floor presence, successful a whole bunch of native seats in a lift for its cadres.

These outcomes have prompted SAD leaders to say that their political fortunes are reviving. They’ve used the dinosaur metaphor as an emblem of that rebirth, turning an assault right into a comeback slogan.

Not surprisingly, the ruling AAP has not let SAD’s marketing campaign go unchallenged.

Its social media accounts and activists have additionally been posting AI memes and movies mocking SAD’s dinosaur motif. One extensively shared clip with the caption “sher agge nikli dinosaur dee hawa (the dinosaur’s wind is popping out earlier than the lion)”, underscores their narrative that SAD is merely blowing sizzling air—reinforcing Mann’s public jibes.

One other AI meme exhibits Mann towering over Badal driving a dinosaur, as Badal runs away after Mann “roars”.

Many AAP-aligned Fb pages have shared Mann’s response that SAD was making an excessive amount of of tiny positive factors.

“The Akalis are quantity three (within the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections). They’ve 10, 15, 8 seats in villages, the place they’re within the third place. They don’t have one full constituency wherever,” the chief minister mentioned at a press convention. “And in the event that they suppose that they’ll win in batches of 10-15, and declare that the dinosaurs are again, then they’re welcome to dwell with the dinosaurs.” He added the Akalis are caught previously.

In one other interplay with the media final week, Mann reiterated that whereas his authorities was attempting to convey trendy expertise to Punjab’s college students, “they (the Akalis) are attempting to take us again lakhs of years to the age of the dinosaurs”. He mentioned, “Blowing air into lizards shouldn’t be going to make a dinosaur.”

The Congress additionally jumped on to the dinosaur theme. Celebration spokesperson Jaskaran Singh Kahlon got here to a press convention final week with a dinosaur-shaped plastic balloon, after which deflated it with a pin—making the purpose that the Akalis had been defeated by the Congress a number of instances over, which it intends to do within the 2027 meeting elections as properly.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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Additionally Learn: AAP retains Tarn Taran. However the true winner may very well be Akali Dal

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