As US midterms enter last lap, Indian "consultants" suddenly thrust into spotlight

From anonymous social media accounts to distorted videos and covert payments, some "political consultants" from India are said to be building a global business around election manipulation, allegedly exporting their speciality to various other countries.

This shadow-campaign model has been thrust into the spotlight in the US where Indian operators were allegedly identified promoting particular candidates ahead of the midterm elections, Al Jazeera reported on November 2.

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The growing international footprint of India's political consultancy industry is exposing an uncomfortable dimension of electoral democracy: the outsourcing of covert influence operations to specialised agencies that promise results while keeping their identities and methods concealed.

Rajan Kumar, a 22-year-old digital content creator, told Al Jazeera he was paid $7 a day to produce around 50 social media posts supporting William Ruto's 2022 presidential campaign in Kenya. His work included editing opponents' speeches to distort their meaning and designing posters carrying misleading claims about Ruto's popularity and electoral prospects.

The material was circulated through anonymous social media accounts rather than the official campaign.

Ruto eventually won and became Kenya's fifth president. Kumar said controversial material was routinely channelled through shadow accounts to ensure wider reach. He also revealed how personal allegations were being used against women politicians as a means of damaging their reputation.

The US is now emerging as a popular destination for these operations, the report said. Researchers have identified Indian accounts and social media bots circulating videos in support of Democratic politician Haley Stevens before the August 4 Senate primary in Michigan, it added.

Stevens lost to Abdul El-Sayed, who became the party's candidate for the midterm election.

The doings of this "industry" was first reported by The New York Times. Antibot4Navalny, an anonymous research group investigating coordinated disinformation campaigns, subsequently identified at least 28 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, sharing pro-Stevens videos, Al Jazeera report said.

These posts reportedly accumulated more than seven million views. Al Jazeera said its review found that at least 15 of the accounts were operating from India.

Researchers at Clemson University's Media Forensic Hub independently identified similar activity involving Indian accounts and pages, Al Jazeera reported.

The phenomenon is not confined to America, Al Jazeera said. People interviewed by Al Jazeera described operations across Africa, South America and other regions, including Nepal and Sri Lanka, it added.

Research into the industry also identified Indian consultancies working in Australia and Germany, it further said.

The business of invisible influence

Political consulting has existed for decades, but social media has transformed its commercial possibilities. Campaigns can now use targeted advertisements, anonymous pages and coordinated content distribution to influence millions of voters while distancing official political organisations from controversial messaging.

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An Al Jazeera investigation before India's 2024 general election had uncovered an extensive network of shadow pages available for use on Meta and Google's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the report said. These networks offered political campaigns an avenue to circulate material that might otherwise violate platform policies, it added.

Al Jazeera quoted Amogh Dhar Sharma, author of Backstage of Democracy, as saying that there is a gap between the visible election campaign and the less transparent machinery operating behind it.

Political campaigns tend to draw public attention towards rallies, speeches and other visible activities, while consultants can exercise considerable influence away from public scrutiny, and this creates hidden centres of power within democratic systems, Sharma told the publication.

According to the report, India's experience of managing large and complex elections has itself become a selling point for consultancies seeking international clients.

The report quoted Delhi-based consultant Tushar Giri as saying that the industry's experience in navigating India's electoral landscape was attracting overseas campaigns.

However, the methods used by these people frequently come in conflict with the rules of major technology platforms, it said. Meta prohibits the buying, selling or exchange of accounts and the use of false or stolen identities. Meta and Google also generally require political advertisers to verify their identities and disclose who finances advertisements, although requirements differ across countries.

Consultants told Al Jazeera that these safeguards are routinely circumvented. Virtual private networks, particularly premium VPN services, can help operators overcome geographical restrictions. Changing an account's country of origin can also enable political advertisements to be targeted at voters in another jurisdiction, the report said.

The money, the secrecy and the risks

The shadow campaign business extends beyond content creation to the movement of money. Several consultants described the use of overseas companies as fronts for payments, with individuals officially employed for unrelated work to conceal the actual purpose of transactions, Al Jazeera said.

Hawala networks, which transfer money across borders through informal broker-based arrangements outside conventional banking channels, are another mechanism cited by consultants, it added.

According to the report, at least three consultants identified export-oriented businesses in Delhi's Chandni Chowk as potential payment collection hubs. One consultant recalled receiving a specific Indian banknote whose serial number served as an identification code for collecting money. The transaction involved millions of rupees in cash, although the consultant declined to identify the country or campaign involved, Al Jazeera said.

The secrecy also reportedly extends to workers at the bottom of the supply chain. Kumar told Al Jazeera he communicated with campaign intermediaries through Telegram groups and was sometimes expected to produce as many as 100 creatives in a day. He had no direct contact with Ruto's representatives and was not informed about everyone involved in the operation.

Participants reportedly take precautions to conceal their involvement, including deleting conversations and frequently destroying SIM cards.

The dangers are not merely financial or reputational. Two Indian political consultants, Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai, who were working for Ruto's campaign, disappeared in Nairobi in July 2022, Al Jazeera's report said. Their bodies were discovered in October.

According to Al Jazeera, they were allegedly abducted by an elite Kenyan police unit. Following Ruto's election victory, the unit was disbanded. Fifteen officers were accused of murder, but in August 2026, Kenya's High Court terminated the charges after prosecutors pushed for the discontinuation of the probe.



This article is based on a report by Al Jazeera