Gamble Gone Wrong? BJP Spent Rs 252 Cr For Poll Campaign In 5 States This Year, 60% Of It In Bengal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spent Rs 252 crore in the Assembly elections held in Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala earlier this year. Out of the Rs 252 crore, 60 per cent was utilised for campaigning in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) dominated West Bengal. It spent Rs 151 crore in the state.

According to the Election Expenditure Statement submitted to the Election Commission, of the Rs 252,02,71,753 spent by the BJP, Rs 43.81 crore was for the Assam polls and Rs 4.79 crore for the Puducherry Assembly election.

Some Crazy Numbers

In Tamil Nadu, where the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) emerged victorious the BJP, which got just 2.6 per cent of the votes, spent Rs 22.97 crore in its campaign, reported Moneycontrol. In Kerala, where the incumbent LDF regained power, the BJP spent Rs 29.24 crore. The election expenditure statements submitted by the political parties to the Election Commission have been put in the public domain by the poll panel.

Meanwhile, the TMC spent Rs 154.28 crore for its campaign in the West Bengal Assembly election, marginally more than its main challenger BJP.

The BJP topped the list he list of expenditure by political parties on campaigning in the October-November Bihar Assembly elections last year, with Rs 71.72 crore, followed by the Congress (Rs 30 crore) and Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), ( Rs 22.67 crore).

BJP'S Annual Income Up By 50% In FY2020

According to a report by The Times of India, the BJP's income in 2019-20, an election year, jumped almost 50 per cent to Rs 3,623 crore from Rs 2,410 crore in 2018-19, while its total expenditure rose by 64 per cent to Rs 1,651 crore from Rs 1,005 crore over the same period.

According to the BJP's annual audit report for the year 2019-2020, the ruling party earned Rs 2,555 crore from electoral bonds in 2019-20, a 76 per cent rise over its Rs 1,450 crore income through this route in 2018-19.

Meanwhile, Congress's total receipts came up to Rs 682 crore in 2019-20. The ruling party's income was almost 5.3 times of Congress's total spend of Rs 998 crore in the same year. In fact, the BJP accounted for more than half of the expenditure incurred by 10 political parties in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

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