Chandigarh, Sept. 2 -- With every election season at Panjab University, memes are becoming as influential as manifestos. This year, anonymous Instagram pages have turned into digital battlegrounds, deploying satire, smear campaigns and viral content to shape public perception of candidates. One of the many targets this year is Sagar Khatri, an independent candidate for the post of joint secretary, whose private pictures with a female friend were circulated on the meme page "_pu_official_"- just four days before the nominations began. The incident led to filing of an FIR, making it one of the most talked about incidents this election season. According to Khatri, the pictures were uploaded with an intent to defame him ahead of the nominations and derail his campaign. "On replying to multiple requests for taking down the pictures, the page's owner told me that he had been paid to post those pictures by an anonymous person," Khatri alleged. "I have filed a complaint with the cyber crime department." Former PUCSC president Anurag Dalal, who faced similar trolling during the 2024 elections, recalled, "There were hundreds of memes targeted at me - many were extremely derogatory. I tried to shut down these pages during my tenure, but neither university authorities nor the cyber cell took any meaningful action." Pages like "_pu_dapardhaan" "pu_lols" are among the most active in this ecosystem, regularly posting photoshopped images, exaggerated captions, and unverified gossip about contestants. In one example, a meme targeting the student wing ABVP, edited their presidential candidate's image to include khaki shorts and a saffron flag in front of the university building. The caption read: "ABVP: Making elections entertaining since forever. Khakhi Khache wale" - an example of how memes combine symbolism, satire, and mockery to influence perception. Reels are also being reengineered into campaign propaganda, with candidates' names overlaid onto already viral templates to attract attention and boost engagement. This meme-based campaigning is turning student elections into a source of entertainment, pulling in audiences who might otherwise ignore campus politics. Colleges affiliated with PU, such as DAV and SD, have their own troll pages like davelections and _sd_meme_, where contestants are routinely lampooned. According to students, many of these handles are indirectly operated by rival student parties to dent the image of opponents. A prime example is 'punjab.officials', believed to be linked to workers of the student party ASAP. While candidates continue to campaign, they admit that memes put them under pressure. "You're under constant scrutiny. A small mistake in one's speech or body language is turned into a meme within minutes," said former PUCSC presidential candidate Divyansh Thakur. Officials at the cyber crime branch said these complaints are forwarded to Instagram for action. "We're working on Sagar Khatri's complaint, it often takes a long time to track the IP addresses of these pages," said Prem Singh, an SI. With meme wars intensifying each election season, students argue that the lack of strong institutional response is emboldening anonymous trolls. "Even if memes are meant as satire, not every student has the thick skin to handle this kind of bullying. Some get deeply affected," said Tapnanshu Gaur, an MA student at Panjab University. Another student, Somya Goel said, "These meme pages often shape the narrative around candidates."...