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,