Artificial intelligence has shifted from an experimental tool to a core component of political campaigning in India's 2026 state assembly elections, according to analysts and campaign strategists. Parties in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry (a small French-colonial-era coastal enclave in southern India) are deploying AI-powered digital war rooms to micro-target voters, clone politicians' voices, generate regional-language content and create candidate avatars at a scale that far exceeds its use in the 2024 national elections. The trend raises concerns beyond campaign efficiency: India's Election Commission has faced Supreme Court scrutiny after an AI-driven voter-roll clean-up reportedly removed around 52 million names ahead of the polls, with many voters claiming they were wrongly struck off due to minor spelling errors.