The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reported that the ruling government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spent 44.06 percent of the total election expenses of all parties, i.e. Rs. 1141.72 crore.
On Friday, the NGO, released a report of the funds collected and expenditure incurred of seven national parties and 25 regional parties during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The report analysed party spending on publicity, travel, miscellaneous expenses and amounts paid to their contesting candidates.
Funds collected and expenditure incurred
The total funds collected by the 32 political parties stood at Rs. 6,405.59 crore. Of these funds, the national parties collected Rs. 5544.34 crore (86.55%) and the regional parties, Rs. 861.25 crore (13.45%).
Among all the parties, the BJP collected the maximum funds of Rs. 4,507.40 crore (63.34%) and the second highest amount was collected by the Indian National Congress (INC) Rs. 1167.14 crore (18.22%).
Of these, the national and regional parties together spent Rs. 2,591.39 crore, of which Rs. 2,004.99 crore (77.37%) was spent by the national parties alone.
BJP’s expenditure among the national parties stood the highest at Rs. 1141.72 crore, followed by the INC which spent Rs. 626.36 crore.
Publicity
The report said that the parties spent the maximum on Media Advertisement (Rs 1166.15 crore or 77.98%) followed by expenditure on Publicity Materials (Rs 222.1 crore or 14.85%) and Public Meetings (Rs 107.16 crore or 7.17%).
Of the total expenditure of the 32 political parties on publicity, Rs 1223.71 crore or 81.83% was spent by the National parties and Rs 271.70 crore or 18.17% was spent by the Regional parties.
The BJP incurred its maximum expenditure under publicity, spending a total of 43.58% or Rs. 651.64 crore of its funds there.
BJP spent the highest on media advertisement – Rs. 488.33 crore. The INC and BJD spent Rs. 411.39 crore (35.32%) and Rs. 71.26 crore (11%) for the same respectively.
Travel
The parties spent a total of Rs. 567.19 crore on travel. Out of this, national parties spent Rs. 487.33 crore (85.92%) and regional parties spend Rs. 79.86 crore (14.08%). Most of these funds were spent by parties on their ‘star campaigners’ and the remaining on the travel of their party leaders.
The ruling party spent Rs. 253.49 crore on the travel of star campaigners and it spent a total of Rs. 4.5 crore on the travel of party leaders. This number was followed by the CPM which incurred Rs. 1.14 crore of travel expenses.
Lumpsum amounts spent on candidates / miscellaneous spending
Out of the total lumpsum amount spent across all parties on candidates – Rs. 528.94 crore, the BJP also took the highest share here, spending Rs. 215.12 crore or (40.67%) of its earnings on candidates.
INC paid Rs 193.97 crore (36.67%), BJD, Rs 33.71 crore (6.37%), DMK, Rs 17.15 crore (3.24%) and CPI paid Rs 13.63 crore (2.58%) to their candidates.
The BJP also topped the charts in spending on miscellaneous expenses. It spent Rs. 246.28 crore or 61.72 percent of the total followed by BJD which spent Rs. 45.03 crore (11.28%) and YSRCP which incurred expenses worth Rs. 38.41 crore (9.63%) on other / miscellaneous expenses.
The BJP has come under fire for allegedly spending on publicity through unofficial or secretive efforts and overlooking the ethics of transparency in election funding. The ADR had earlier reported that in FY 2017 – 18, the largest seven political parties had received a combined income of Rs. 1,397 crore of which Rs. 1,027 crore (73.5%) belonged to the BJP alone. Out of this income that the BJP earned, most – Rs. 989 crore, came in through donations. Out of this, more than 50 percent was from ‘unknown sources’ due to the 2017 electoral bonds system, which keeps donor details anonymous.
The Wire reported, since started term as the Central government in 2014 to October 2018, the Modi government had spent as much on ads as the Manmohan Singh government had spent in its ten years of power. Out of its total expenditure of nearly Rs 5,000 crore, Rs 2,136.39 crores was spent on advertising in the print media. Rs 2,211.11 crore was spent on electronic media.
In FY 2017 – 18, the BJP’s highest expense was election propaganda. It spent Rs. 567.43 crore on the same that year. It spend copious amounts of money on political ads on Google and Facebook and it was also the leading brand in TV advertising with its ads being aired 22,099 times to the public.
Related:
BJP gets lion’s share of donations in 2018 – 2019; a 70% increase in funding from ’17 – 18
EC files affidavit stating electoral bond donation details before SC