BHUBANESWAR : A day before the US presidential election gets underway, Odisha politics and political leaders were found caught in the frenzy albeit in a quirky manner when AI-generated or finely morphed images of former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump, ex-first lady Melania Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk went viral on Monday.
In one particular image, Trump, Melania and Elon were seen sitting cross-legged on the floor and having a hearty full-course meal from sal leaf plates by their hand in a village household. Melania is seen wearing a saree, while Trump and Elon were wearing traditional Indian kurtas with saffron and green scarves.
As they were re-imagined as typical Indian politicians on campaign trail, the real picture was from 2018 and taken when the then BJP president Amit Shah was having lunch at the house of a Dalit at Deogaon village in Balangir district. He was accompanied by KV Singh Deo, the present deputy chief minister of Odisha, the latter’s wife and now Balangir BJP MP Sangeeta Singh Deo and a host of state BJP functionaries including Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram.
Shah’s visit was part of the BJP’s Pravash programme to reach out to people in the run up to the 2019 general elections. The party had then made elaborate arrangements at the house of a Dalit daily wager Maheswar Suna. More than a dozen dishes were served to Shah and the party leaders.
Interestingly, Trump has acquired the appearance of KV Singh Deo while Sangeeta has been transmorphed into Melania and Elon has taken over the big man Shah himself.
The morphed picture was posted across social media platforms by various people and even Trump’s campaign team, it generated much curiosity and mirth all around. The TrumpUpdateHQ also went all the way to post both the original and the re-imagined versions of the picture with a question, “Which one looks original?”
Reacting to the viral image, Singh Deo said he was pleasantly surprised and amused by it. “This only goes to prove that the Indian Diaspora influences the American elections,” he said.