BJP, Congress have spent Rs 500 crore on hiring aircraft since 2014

Money spent by political parties on hiring aircraft constitute a significant chunk of revenues of aircraft charter companies

In the 2019 election season, politicians from across the spectrum descending from the skies at rally venues has been a common sight across the country. While every election has its fair share of chopper-hoppers, the 2019 general elections have seen a greater use of air power by parties.

While how much they spent on hiring flying machines will be clear only after parties submit their expenditure reports for the 2019 general elections, an analysis of the amount of money spent by India’s two biggest parties reveals that they have spent Rs 496 crore on hiring aircraft and helicopters for campaigning in every state and general elections since 2014.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress hired from various aircraft charter companies – many of whom are registered as non-scheduled operators in India. While the BJP consistently hired from a couple of aircraft charter companies, the Congress used the services of a lot more companies. Hourly charges for even the most basic aircraft start from Rs 1.5 lakh, while hourly rentals for the most basic choppers start at around Rs 65,000 an hour.

A senior executive at an aircraft-leasing company said that these hourly rates are usually doubled during elections because of heavy demand. In some states, the amount of money spent by the BJP on hiring aircraft was almost a fifth of its total election expenditure.  

Of the amount spent by both parties on hiring aircraft by both parties, the BJP accounted for Rs 327 crore, or almost two-thirds. The Congress hadn’t submitted its expenditure reports for the legislative Assembly elections held in Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh held in 2018. The overall expenses incurred by both parties could well exceed Rs 500 crore once the Congress submits to the Election Commission of India (ECI) its expenditure reports for the above-mentioned elections.

The BJP spent Rs 70 crore on hiring aircraft during legislative Assembly elections in 2018, including in Karnataka. The saffron party spent the most on hiring aircraft and choppers in Madhya Pradesh – a geographically vast state. Of the entire money spent in all 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP spent Rs 40 crore in Madhya Pradesh. In 2017, when Assembly elections were held in the states of Gujarat, Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, the BJP spent Rs 73 crore on hiring flying machines. A bulk of its spend was in Uttar Pradesh, where it spent Rs 35 crore. The Congress, meanwhile, spent just about Rs 20 crore in these states on flying their star campaigners and top leadership.

In 2016, Assembly elections were held in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Assam. The BJP spent Rs 28 crore for hiring planes in these elections. The Congress, meanwhile, spent just about Rs 10 crore in these states. For the Assembly elections in Bihar in 2015, the BJP spent Rs 38 crore, while the Congress reported expenses of just Rs 6 crore.

The Congress soared higher than the BJP in spending money on hiring aircraft during the 2014 general elections, even though the party in that election crashed to its lowest Lok Sabha tally in recent times. The Congress spent Rs 105 crore, significantly higher than the BJP’s aviation spend of Rs 84 crore, from the date of notification till the end of polling for all Lok Sabha seats across the country. There were other Assembly elections held that year, including in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir. The BJP spent Rs 33 crore flying its star campaigners, including Bollywood actors like Sunny Deol and Vivek Overoi in addition to the BJP’s top leadership in these states. The Congress spent half that amount in these state elections.

During all elections since 2014, the Congress has used the services of various charter companies. One of the most prominent charter companies used by the Congress was Air Limousines – a Gurgaon-based aircraft charter company whose services are not being availed of by the party this time around. Others include Mumbai-based MAB Aviation and aircraft owned by companies of some Congress leaders like Navin Jindal. The BJP, meanwhile, has continued to use a couple of charter companies’ services. One of them, Jaipur-based Saarthi Aviation has been virtually used by the party in every election since 2014. Saarthi Aviation is owned by Gulab Singh Tanwar, who is also in the business of producing Bollywood movies. His production house has produced movies featuring yesteryear stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor.

In the 2016 Assembly elections in various states, of the Rs 28 crore spent by the BJP on hiring aircraft for campaigning, Rs 25 crore was paid to Saarthi Airways. Similarly, in the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections, Saarthi Airways was the only company flying BJP’s top leadership and getting all of the Rs 40 crore spent by the party on hiring aircraft in the state.

Business Standard had sent a set of questions to Saarthi Airways but not received a response as of the time of publication of this report. Their responses will be added here as and when they are received. But a look at its financials shows that election-time earnings form a significant component of its operational revenues. For instance, in 2016-17, the company’s operational revenues were Rs 72 crore and it earned a profit of Rs 1.71 crore. Saarthi Airways did most of the flying for BJP in 2016 in five states where assembly elections were held between April 4 and May 16. For this, it received a sum of almost Rs 25 crore. In Uttar Pradesh, it got another Rs 20 crore from the party during the Assembly elections held between February 11 and March 8, 2017.

In effect, during the financial year 2016-17, Saarthi Airways earned almost two-thirds of its revenues from chartering planes to the BJP in just six states that went to the polls. It also did a fair amount of flying for the party in Punjab, where the BJP spent almost Rs 3 crore hiring planes and choppers that year. According to latest regulatory filings, Saarthi Airways’ revenues had declined to Rs 18 crore in 2017-18. But its 2018-19 revenues could be much higher, as the company received Rs 40 crore from the BJP for flying its leaders during the Madhya Pradesh elections held in November 2018.

While it is unclear if the BJP has again used the company’s services for the 2019 polls, any potential contract could boost its revenues even further in 2019-20.

A senior aircraft charter company executive told Business Standard: “During the election season, committed utilisation of aircraft is very high for a certain amount of time. This is not the case at other times of the year. With greater fleet utilisation during the election period, hiring of aircraft by political parties contributes a significant part to our operational revenues. There is also a great demand-supply mismatch during these times for chartered planes. There has been very minimal growth in non-scheduled aircraft acquisitions. Helicopter acquisitions have seen negative growth. During the election season, charter companies can easily double their mark-ups and political parties will be happy to pay that.”