How much did the political parties spent amount in 2009 elections?
9 Feb, 2014The reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the two largest political parties of the country spent huge amount of money for 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The reply to the application states that though Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded lesser number of candidates (433) than Congress (440), it spent Rs. 448 crores while Congress spent only Rs. 343 crores in the elections. The reply, given by the Election Commission of India, shows that Congress spent maximum amount on publicity (Rs. 207.88 crores) followed by the travel expenditures (Rs. 112 crores). Largest chunk of BJP’s expenditure was also done on publicity (Rs. 173 crores). However, it spent Rs. 70 crores on purchasing assets like party offices and Rs. 64 crores on travels. Of the Rs 113 crore shown as miscellaneous expenditure on the candidates, the BJP has not provided the break-up.
All the data pertains to period of three months from March 2, when the election dates were announced to May 28, when the poll was completed.