BJP Spends Rs 31 Cr Ahead Of Lok Sabha Polls, INC Stands At Rs 14 Lakhs: Google Ads

According to statistics from the Google Ads Transparency Centre, BJP spent more than Rs 31 crore on Google campaigns between January 1 and March 15, ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, the majority of the advertisements, which ran in multiple languages, starred Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On the other hand, the Indian National Congress (INC) has only spent Rs 14 lakhs over this time or less than 1 per cent of the BJP's Google advertising budget. During this time, the majority of their Hindi-language advertisements starring Rahul Gandhi were directed towards the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Maharashtra.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which currently rules in Odisha, was the second largest spender after BJP, followed by Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh. BJD, which is currently in talks with BJP for a pre-poll alliance, spent close to Rs 1.30 crore on Google ads between January 1 and March 15.

Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are among four states that are going to Assembly polls along with general elections.

Notably, top political parties have been spending on TV, Print, Radio and OOH, much before the election process was put out officially.

Political parties are bound to up their game in the next couple of weeks since the first phase of polls takes place in less than a month, poll strategists say.

The EC has prescribed the expenditure limit as Rs 95 lakh for each Lok Sabha candidate and Rs 40 lakh for each Assembly candidate. A significant portion of this goes into advertising although it includes expenses on public meetings, rallies, hoardings, pamphlets, and all other election-related work.

Google mandates that all advertisers who wish to run election ads on Google platforms will have to undergo an identity verification process and disclose the source of funding for the advertisements.