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 Sagar Khatri, the pictures were uploaded with an intent to defame him ahead of the n...