New Delhi: The BJP outspent the Congress in 2024‑25 by a staggering 274 percent, a sharp jump from two previous Lok Sabha election years, when the difference stood at 56 percent in 2019‑20 and 59 percent in 2014‑15, when the Congress entered the polls as the incumbent.
According to data from the Election Commission of India, the Congress spent Rs 896 crore on elections in 2024-25, while the BJP spent Rs 3,355 crore on ‘election and general propaganda’.
Apart from the Parliamentary elections, the financial year saw elections to nine assemblies—Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.
The BJP spent Rs 1,352 crore on elections in 2019-2020, as compared to the Congress’ Rs 864 crore during the financial year, when the elections to the 17th Lok Sabha were held, along with polls to eight Assemblies. In the financial year 2014-15, the BJP spent Rs 925 crore on elections, as against the Congress’s Rs 582 crore on elections.
While the Congress has questioned the fairness of elections owing to the funding disparity, experts opine that financial resources may not be the only deciding factor.
“Prima facie, because the BJP is contesting, perhaps more aggressively, and because it has more money, it is able to spend more…one will have to look at the kind of expenditure that they have done. Simply because they have spent more, does not necessarily raise eyebrows,” Political analyst Chandrachur Singh told ThePrint, asserting that as long as the money which is coming to the BJP has been obtained by fair means, it’s difficult for critics to point fingers.
Singh, who is a political science professor at the Hindu College, University of Delhi, said the BJP works more as a corporate organisation. “So just before the elections, it is able to channelise its resources, pool its people together, send them to the field…Mass scale mobilisation requires resources, including financial resources.”
However, Singh added that while the resources help the BJP to expand its network and consequently bring it an electoral advantage, he does not think that money alone accounts for votes. “If that were the case, the BJP would not have lost any election.”
Speaking in Rajya Sabha late last year, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken had highlighted what he termed the lack of a “level playing field”. He had pointed out that the BJP’s bank balance jumped from Rs 88 crore in 2004 to Rs 10,107 crore in 2024, while the Congress’s showed a modest increase to Rs 133 crore from Rs 38 crore during the same period.
“The BJP’s bank balance after 2009 was Rs 150 crore and the Congress’s was Rs 221 crore, 1.47 times more at a ratio of 60:40,” Maken had said.
“By 2024, the figures were more shocking. From Rs 3,562 crore, the BJP’s bank balance rose to Rs 10,107 crore, 75 times more than the Congress, which had Rs 133 crore. Where is the level-playing field? How will the Opposition take on the ruling party when the ratio stands at 99:1?” he added.
A 602 percent jump
Out of the Rs 3,355 crore that the BJP spent on elections and general propaganda, a major chunk, or Rs 1,124 crore, was spent on electronic media. This was 352 percent more than the party’s expenditure on electronic media in 2019-20, when it stood at 249 crore.
In 2024-25, the BJP spent Rs 583 crore on aircraft and helicopters, more than doubling its expense from 250 crore in 2019-2020, when the last Parliamentary elections were held.
The party’s financial assistance to candidates also jumped multifold, from 88 crore in 2014-15 and 198 crore in 2019-20, to 312 crore in 2024-25—a 255 percent jump in a decade. The BJP also more than doubled its expenditure on “advertisement”, from 400 crore in 2019-20, to 897 crore in 2024-25.
As for income, the voluntary contribution to the party has steadily increased from Rs 872 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 3,427 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 6,124 crore in 2024-25— showing a 602 percent jump in the decade.
In 2024-25, the party accounts showed that the party had Rs 9,996 crore as cash and cash equivalents, tripled from 3,510 crore in 2019-20.
Stark contrast
The assembly elections in states which usually witness a bipolar contest between the BJP and Congress also showed a similar trend on expenditure.
For instance, the Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan assembly polls were conducted in 2018 and 2023. In 2018-19, the BJP spent Rs Rs 792 crore on elections, more than double of the Congress’s Rs 308 crore.
However, the jump in expenditure from the previous financial year told a different story. While the BJP increased its election expenditure from Rs 567 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 792 crore, the Congress increased its expenditure from Rs 29 crore in 2017-18 to 308 crore in 2018-19— a 962 percent increase.
In Karnataka, the BJP fell short of a majority initially, but came to power in 2019 after the fall of the coalition government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy owing to defections.
Madhya Pradesh saw a similar development. The Congress won the elections by a wafer-thin margin and came to power, but the government lasted only 15 months and the BJP returned to the state after defections.
In 2023-24, the BJP spent a whopping Rs 1,754 crore, almost triple of the Congress’s Rs 619 crore. The Congress won the elections in Karnataka, while the BJP retained power in Madhya Pradesh.
In Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Congress came to power in 2018, but had to face defeat in the 2023 polls.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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