BJP Spent 40% More on 2025 Delhi Elections Compared to 2020
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spent Rs 57.65 crore on campaigning for the Delhi assembly elections – an increase of 40% from the Rs 41.06 crore it spent in 2020.
In comparison, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which lost to the BJP after a decade in power, spent Rs 14.5 crore and the Congress, which drew a blank for the third consecutive election, spent Rs 46.18 crore.
In 2024, the BJP alone accounted for over 45% 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.
In the assembly elections held in February this year, the BJP returned to power in the national capital after 27 years. According to the expenditure reports uploaded on the Election Commission of India website, the BJP spent the majority of its election expenditure on media advertising, which amounted to Rs 29 crore, the Hindustan Times reported. The party also spent Rs 18.5 crore on 68 candidates, which included Rs 25 lakh in direct transfers to each candidate. In 2020, the party spent Rs 8.57 crore on candidates including giving Rs 10 lakh each to 64 candidates.
Of the BJP's media advertising, Rs 1.18 crore went to DB Corp, which publishes Danik Bhaskar; Rs 11.8 lakh to Bharat Prakashan, which publishes Organiser and Panchjanya – the mouthpiece of the RSS. In addition, Rs 9.44 lakh each went to Aadhyaasi Media, and Kovai Media, which publish OpIndia and Swarajya respectively.
Another Rs 1.18 crore was paid to One97 Communications.
Of the Rs 46.18 crore total expense by the Congress, it spent Rs 5.95 crore on its candidates and Rs 8 crore on media advertising. It also paid Rs 2.68 crore to Associated Journals Ltd, publisher of National Herald, which is under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
In the 2020 assembly elections the AAP and the Congress had spent Rs 21 crore and Rs 27.68 crore, respectively.
This article went live on May twenty-seventh, two thousand twenty five, at fifty-five minutes past six in the evening.
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