Post by : Jyoti Gupta

Photo:PTI

A new report says that during the 2024 elections, one political party spent almost half of all the money used by all parties. This party used about ₹1,500 crore, which is a huge amount. The next biggest spender was another major party, but it spent much less—only about ₹620 crore.

Altogether, 32 big and small parties spent more than ₹3,300 crore on the Lok Sabha, and some state elections were held at the same time. Most of this money was used by the national parties.

Most of the spending went on advertising, like posters, TV, and social media. Parties spent over ₹2,000 crore just to tell people about themselves. The next biggest cost was travel, especially for the main leaders who went to many places to campaign. They also gave some money directly to their candidates and spent a bit on online campaigns.

Some parties were late in telling the Election Commission how much they spent, even though they were supposed to share this information on time. Only one party sent a full report for both national and state elections together.

The report also said that to stop the use of black money, parties should spend money using cheques or bank transfers. It suggested that there should be more checks on how much parties spend during elections.