In August 2018, at an all-party meeting called by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the proposal to cap election spending by political parties was on the table. Most political parties, except the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pushed for a cap on spending.
Unsurprisingly, in the 2019 General Election held nine months later, the BJP spent Rs 1264 crore, a staggering Rs 444 crore more than the Congress, which spent Rs 820 crore on the election.
Five years on, in 2024, as India witnessed one of its most expensive elections ever, the BJP's expenditure rose to ₹1,737.68 crore, while that of the Congress shrank to ₹686.19 crore — widening the overall gap to ₹1,048.49 crore.
This means the gap widened by a massive Rs 604 crore in just five years — an increase of 136.04 percent.
These numbers are based only on the official reports furnished by political parties to the ECI.
The Quint analysed 2024 Lok Sabha election expenditure reports furnished by the BJP and Congress (top two spenders) and found that not only are the Indian elections increasingly becoming an uneven playing field with the BJP outspending most other parties by as much as 50 percent in some cases, the reports submitted to the ECI are also riddled with discrepancies hinting at under reporting of actual expenditure.
We also looked at the spending by both parties on general party propaganda and media, and found that while the Congress still relied on the mainstream media for election advertisements, the BJP spent heavily on PR and communication firms, party mouthpieces, and tech giants such as Facebook and Google.
Riddled With Discrepancies, Do Expenditure Reports Tell The Full Story?
As per the law, all political parties in India must submit detailed election expenditure reports to the ECI within a fixed timeframe after each election. For Lok Sabha elections, parties must file their spending statements within 90 days of the results while for state assembly polls this period is 75 days.
The Quint went through 602 page-long expenditure report submitted by the BJP to the EC seven months after the election results were declared. A poorly scanned document, it carried information of only 22 out of 36 states and Union Territories (UTs). Spending information from big states and UTs, such as Delhi, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh was not legible in the document.
In many states, several expenditure columns were left undeclared. For instance, travel expenses of star campaigners for the party who campaigned in Delhi were not provided.
It is, hence, highly likely that the report does not show the full picture of expenditure.
Report submitted by the Congress party, which runs into 65 pages, also raised several questions. In certain states, such as Bihar and Chhattisgarh, party's opening cash balance was as low as Rs 25,713 and Rs 10,500 respectively. This figures are abysmally low and raise questions of underreporting of funds and subsequent expenditure.
Jagdeep Chhokar, founding member of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — an organisation working on transparency and political reforms for over 20 years — told The Quint that election expenditure reports submitted by political parties are riddled with irregularities and do little to serve the idea of transparency in election process. "These shadow expenditure reports do not do much to make the election process more transparent. Parties delay filing the reports. By the time they come out, they are of little value to voters. The ECI's prescribed format itself has room for improvement. There's no scope for an independent audit, and many such similar issues," Chhokar said.
PR Firms and Party Mouthpieces: Who All Did BJP Pay?
Out of its total declared expenditure of Rs 1737.68 crore, the BJP spent a mammoth Rs 684.57 crore on media advertisements and party propaganda. This is only about Rs 2 crore less than Congress' overall budget for the election which stood at Rs 686.19 crore.
The Congress, on the other hand, spent Rs 410 crore — approximately 70 percent of its total spending of Rs 584.65 crore — on advertisements.
Among BJP's top payees were publicity firms such as Madison Communication Private Limited which received a mammoth Rs 315 crore, almost half of the party's total advertisement budget. Owned by advertising giant Sam Balsara, Madison had previously handled BJP's Print, Television, and radio campaigns in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections too.
The party also gave and additional Rs 156.95 crore to Google India for advertisements. While mainstream media was majorly paid through communication agencies such as Madison, party mouthpiece Janmambhumi Daily and Bharat Prakashan, the publishing house of RSS mouthpieces Panchjanya and Organiser were among top media payees.
A Case to Cap Election Spending by Political Parties
As per the analysis of expenditure reports uploaded by political parties on the EC website, BJP's declared expenditure of Rs 1737.68 crore was 45 percent of the total campaign expenditure declared by the 22 political parties during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the four assembly elections (in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim) that were held simultaneously.
These include: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Indian National Congress (INC), Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)], Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)], Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) [LJP(RV)], Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP), Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM).
With the Congress spending approximately 40 percent less than the BJP, the spending gap was the widest ever in these elections.
"The Election Commission has, as part of electoral reforms, proposed a ceiling on party expenditure in elections to ensure a level playing field for all players," former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat told The Quint.
Indian law currently stipulates an upper limit for election expenditure for individual candidates. No such limit, however, exists on political parties.
Rawat added: "That the political parties are exempt from this cap allows candidates to breach the cap imposed on them easily. Any expenditure above and beyond that is shown as party expenditure."
A law commission report tabled at the 2018 all-party EC meeting also raised concerns of lobbying, underreporting of expenditure, and circulation of money in black if a ceiling is introduced.
Chhokar said these are all valid concerns but they cannot be deterrent in introducing changes will help bring in transparency in the process. "Let us not assume that these things are not happening now. Political parties will always try and find ways around these rules. The solution, however, cannot be the system as it is now. We need to cap spending to ensure a level playing field for all parties. We also need to ensure that political parties adhere to RTI rules. Despite being under the ambit of RTI, several parties are yet to appoint Information Commissioners," he said.
Rawat agreed. "If we want to clean the election process, the first step has to be capping the spending ceiling and ensuring that the ceiling is implemented. If introduced, EC's surveillance system is strong enough for it to ensure that this ceiling is implemented," he said.