By T N Ashok
The political battle for 2029 may already be taking shape—not in Parliament or at election rallies, but on Instagram, in student gatherings, on streets and in the informal spaces where India’s youngest voters increasingly form their political opinions. Rahul Gandhi appears to have understood something important: Gen Z does not necessarily want another sermon from a politician; it wants a conversation. Narendra Modi, meanwhile, is beginning to adapt his formidable digital machine to the same generation.
There was a time when Rahul Gandhi’s political image was almost entirely controlled by his opponents. The Congress leader was caricatured, mocked and reduced to a succession of memes. His political seriousness was questioned and his ability to connect with ordinary Indians was frequently dismissed.
Now, something has changed radically as Gen Z is swinging wildly behind him and whenever he appears in public, there is a thunderous ovation, this is not a joke but a serious event. No better example than the students movement. How leveraged it.
Rahul Gandhi is increasingly discovering a constituency that does not seem particularly interested in the old caricature of him: India’s Gen Z and younger millennials. And the most revealing sign of this transformation may have been a joke.
During an Instagram “Ask Me Anything” interaction with young users this week, Gandhi was asked whether he was Batman. His answer was pure internet culture: “No one has seen us together.” The joke was instantly understood because Batman is the anonymous vigilante who operates outside conventional authority, fights crime and challenges powerful institutions. Gandhi did not need to explain the metaphor. Gen Z did it for him.
It was funny, but politically significant. For a politician who once struggled to appear relatable to younger Indians, Gandhi was suddenly speaking their language. His transformation did not happen overnight. The change has been building since the Bharat Jodo Yatra and subsequent political campaigns, when Gandhi increasingly abandoned the carefully choreographed politician’s stage for direct contact with people—walking, eating, travelling, listening and arguing with students, workers, farmers and young professionals.
That style has now collided with a generation whose political vocabulary is radically different from that of its predecessors.
Gen Z is comfortable with irony, memes, short videos and irreverence. It distrusts excessive formality. It is suspicious of authority when authority appears unaccountable. And increasingly, it wants politicians to answer questions rather than merely deliver speeches.
Gandhi has begun to exploit that space. In February, after an interaction with NRI students in the UAE, he spoke about the anxieties young people face—professional uncertainty, social judgement, insecurity and the struggle to balance career with passion. His message was that life is not linear and young people should remain flexible and persevere.
More recently, his political messaging has become even more directly focused on youth. When student anger erupted over examination irregularities and paper leaks, Gandhi positioned himself alongside the protesters. In June he called young Indians to a major student gathering in Kota, describing paper leaks, cancelled recruitments, rising fees and unemployment as threats to the dreams of millions of young people.
That is where his political strategy differs sharply from Narendra Modi’s. Modi’s great strength has always been his ability to communicate directly with voters without intermediaries. His rallies, radio broadcasts, carefully produced videos and enormous social-media ecosystem helped turn political communication into a leader-to-citizen exercise.
But Gen Z is a different audience. It does not automatically transfer the political loyalty of parents to children. It is less impressed by political mythology and more concerned with jobs, examinations, education, inflation, opportunity and personal freedom.
The student protests of 2026 have provided a warning signal. The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party movement reportedly built an enormous Gen Z following on Instagram, while its street protests spread beyond Delhi. The resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after the protests represented a remarkable moment: a youth movement had demonstrated that online mobilisation could spill into the physical world and produce a tangible political consequence.
For Modi, this was a reminder that the digital generation cannot simply be addressed through traditional political messaging. And Modi has responded.
He has begun talking more directly to young audiences on Instagram. In July, he posted a video addressing Gen Z protesters, calling students “friends” rather than using his more familiar political idiom. The video reportedly attracted hundreds of millions of views. Modi has also urged his ministers to become more active on Instagram and use reels to communicate with young Indians.
The Prime Minister therefore cannot be written off as technologically disconnected from Gen Z. Quite the opposite. Few Indian politicians possess his digital reach.
The question is whether reach is the same thing as intimacy. That could become one of the central political questions of the road to 2029. Modi has the machinery. Gandhi increasingly has the mood.
Modi’s political communication is built around scale: millions watching the same message, the same leader, the same carefully constructed narrative.
Gandhi’s emerging appeal is more conversational. He asks questions, takes questions and increasingly appears willing to enter uncomfortable spaces. His interaction with students and young people gives him something that cannot easily be manufactured by a social-media team: physical presence.
That distinction matters. A reel can attract 100 million views. But a politician sitting among students, walking with protesters or allowing young people to ask unscripted questions creates a different kind of political memory.
The challenge for Gandhi is that popularity among young urban Indians is not equivalent to an electoral coalition. India in 2029 will not be decided by Instagram alone. The BJP possesses a vast organisational network, a formidable cadre, enormous political resources and Modi’s still considerable national recognition. The Prime Minister remains one of India’s most recognisable political figures.
Nor should Modi’s political charisma be declared dead. It has been dented in some sections, particularly where youth anger has collided with issues such as examinations and employment, but political charisma can be rebuilt. Modi has demonstrated repeatedly that he can reinvent his communication style when circumstances demand it.
Gandhi therefore faces an even harder task: converting affection into votes, memes into mobilisation and street energy into an organisation capable of fighting elections in hundreds of constituencies.
The Congress also has to answer a larger question. Can Gandhi’s personal connection with young Indians be institutionalised? Can the party recruit, train and promote a new generation of leaders who actually understand the concerns of first-time voters? Can it offer credible answers on employment, education, technology, entrepreneurship and social mobility?
If it cannot, Gandhi’s Gen Z moment could remain a personality phenomenon. But if he can turn it into a movement, the political implications could be considerable.
The 2029 election is still three years away. Predicting its winner today would be little more than political fortune-telling. Yet the early contours of the contest are becoming visible.
Modi is trying to rebuild his relationship with the next generation through Instagram, reels and digital intimacy. Rahul Gandhi is attempting something more old-fashioned and, paradoxically, more modern: getting out among people.
That is why the Batman joke matters. Batman is not powerful because he occupies an official position. He is powerful because he appears to operate outside the establishment, challenging rules when they protect the wrong people.
Gandhi’s political pitch to the young is increasingly built around a similar idea—not that he is Batman, obviously, but that he is willing to challenge an establishment he believes has become too powerful and too insulated.
Whether that message survives the journey from Instagram to the polling booth will determine much of the 2029 story.
For now, Modi still holds the advantage in organisation, national reach, political experience and electoral machinery. But Gandhi may be acquiring something that cannot be manufactured overnight: generational identification. And in a country where millions of first-time voters will enter the electorate before 2029, that could become the most valuable political currency of all.
The battle may ultimately be between two different versions of political communication: Modi speaking to the next generation through the world’s largest digital megaphone, and Gandhi attempting to speak with it—on the streets, in classrooms, in conversations and increasingly on the same Instagram screen.
Three years is a long time in politics. But if the young voters of 2029 are already deciding which politician feels like one of them, the contest has perhaps begun earlier than anyone expected.
The strongest possible question, in my view, is not “Rahul will beat Modi in 2029”, but that the nature of political charisma is changing: Modi has unmatched digital reach, while Rahul is trying to build generational identification. That makes the comparison more credible and more interesting than a straight electoral prediction. (IPA Service)
