Story in numbers: Congress catches up with BJP in state election spends

In the last three phases of assembly elections in India, the Congress is slowly catching up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in terms of money spent on campaigning, a report by Association for Democratic Reforms, an advocacy in the area of electoral reforms, has shown.

In late 2017, the BJP spent Rs 132 crore for its campaign in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. The Congress spent nearly Rs 21 crore, about 16 per cent of its opponent. Come 2018, in the most recent assembly election phase, Congress spent about half of what BJP spent in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

Congress raised more electoral funds from state units but spent more from the central kitty in the five states that went to assembly polls towards the end of 2018. On the other hand, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised more money in a centralized manner, but let its state units spend in a decentralized way.

While the Congress raised Rs 193 crore centrally against BJP’s Rs 342 crore, it spent Rs 46 crore centrally, way higher than Rs 7.3 crore spent centrally by the BJP, the report shows. The data was collated from the reports submitted by political parties to Election Commission.

In almost all states, Congress raised more money from state units compared to the BJP.

The two opposing political parties were different in the way the spent money on election campaigns. While BJP spent more aggressively on publicity—electronic, print, posters, rallies—Congress gave more freedom to the candidates as lumpsum support. BJP spent substantially more than the Congress on campaign travel.

State-wise spending throws some interesting trends. In relatively more developed states, parties tend to spend less on traditional ways of publicity such as posters, banners and hoardings, and more on electronic media. This is evident in the spending pattern in Telangana.

Tribal dominated states of Chhattisgarh and Mizoram saw a different pattern. While traditional publicity methods were prominent in the former, public meetings took up nearly half of election money in the latter.  

Across political parties, they tend to spend less money than what they have raised, the report shows. The report is based on spending reports presented by six national parties and seven regional parties.