New Delhi: Political parties have spent over Rs 53 crore on digital platforms like Google and Facebook between February and May, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accounting for a lion’s share of the spending.
According to Facebook’s Ad Library Report, there were 1.21 lakh political ads with a total spending of more than Rs 26.5 crore between February and May 15 this year. Similarly, ad spend on Google, YouTube, and partner properties since February 19 stood at Rs 27.36 crore with 14,837 ads.
BJP spent Rs 4.23 crore on over 2,500 ads on Facebook. Supporting pages like ‘My First Vote for Modi’, ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ and ‘Nation with NaMo’ too, infused over rupees four crore on ads on the social networking platform that has well over 200 million users in India. On Google’s platforms, it has spent more than Rs 17 crore.
The Congress spent Rs 1.46 crore on Facebook for 3,686 ads. It shelled out another Rs 2.71 crore on Google’s platforms with 425 ads.
As per Facebook’s data India Trinamool Congress has spent Rs 29.28 lakhs while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) shelled out Rs 13.62 lakh for 176 ads on the platform.
Interestingly, Google’s political ad dashboard showed that Auburn Digital Solutions was running AAP campaigns and had spent Rs 2.18 crore from February 19 onwards.
Earlier this year, digital platforms like Google and Facebook had said that they will offer details of political advertisements on their platform to bring transparency ahead of elections in the country. They have also announced a slew of measures over the past few months to strengthen efforts around election integrity.
