Political parties in India spent a total of ₹720 crore in various states during the five state assembly elections held in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, towards the beginning of 2021, according to the latest report by advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms.
Political parties are required to submit details about funds collected, and its expenditures on each election campaigns, which is then compiled and analysed by ADR for its report.
Nineteen political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India, have declared an overall expenditure of ₹514 crore in the five state assembly polls.
ADR further combined other expenditures the parties made, such as lumpsum amounts paid to candidate, and expenses on travelling and media advertisement for candidates, and reported and overall expenditure of ₹720 crore. This included expenditure under various heads, namely 'Publicity, Travel Expenses, Other/ Miscellaneous expenses, Lumpsum amount paid to their contesting candidates, and Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s)'.
According to the report, most of the money was spent on 'Publicity', drawing an expenditure of over ₹280 crore. This was followed by 'Lumpsum amount paid to candidates', drawing an expenditure of ₹236 crore.
Political parties received over ₹1100 crore in funds for the assembly polls. This amount far exceeded their overall expenditure of ₹720 crore.
BJP received the most funds, amounting to ₹611 crore, while it spent only ₹163 crore, out of it. Despite spending only portion of the amount it had received, BJP remains the highest spender in the assembly polls, spending on each of the five states.
The second highest spender was DMK, with an expenditure of ₹114 crore. The overall funds received by the party stood at ₹134 crore.
AITC was the third highest spender, with an expenditure of ₹80 crore. West Bengal's ruling party's expenditure exceeded the funds it had received, which amounted to ₹56 crore.
INC, which had received an amount of ₹194 crore, spent only ₹57 crore, ending up as the fourth highest spender.