Lok Sabha election spending gap widens: BJP outspends Congress by 3 times at Rs 1,737 crore

About 35% of the total expenditure or Rs 611.50 crore was spent on advertisements on electronic and print media, social media, phone calls and text messages. Nearly 30% of the amount spent on advertising went to Google India (Rs 156.95 crore) and Facebook (Rs 24.63 crore), the report showed.

Of the expenditure borne by the BJP headquarters, Rs 168.92 crore was spent on the travel of star campaigners, including BJP president J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior leaders. The party spent Rs 55.75 crore on publicity materials, including hoardings, cut-outs, stickers, handbills, caps, flags and sarees. It spent Rs 19.84 crore on organising public meetings. The party also declared expenditure of Rs 19.58 crore on two surveys and Rs 1.79 crore on “Namo Stalls”.

The party’s expenditure report, dated January 22, was filed well past the EC’s 90-day deadline for Lok Sabha elections. In the cover letter along with the report, the party wrote: “We regret the delay in the submission of the information.”

The Congress spent Rs 584.65 crore on contesting the Lok Sabha election and Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in 2024, as per its report published by the EC in October. The report, submitted in August 2024, showed that 70% of the party’s spending was on advertisements.

The Election Commission announced the elections to the Lok Sabha and four Assemblies on March 16, 2024. The seven-phase elections concluded with the counting of votes on June 4, 2024.