BJP spent over Rs. 10 crores on Facebook ads with an income of Rs. 2,410 cr while Congress spent Rs. 3 crores out of its Rs. 918 cr income

Social Media Giant Facebook’s spending tracker has confirmed that BJP ( Bharatiya Janata Party) is among the top 10 spenders in this category (political ads) and other four advertisers of the same party belonging to the BJP-IT cell with same addresses.

These four include two community pages, ‘My First Vote for Modi’ (Rs 1.39 crore) and ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ (Rs 2.24 crore); Nation With Namo, which is categorised as a news and media website (Rs 1.28 crore); and, a page (Rs 0.65 crore) affiliated to BJP leader and former MP R K Sinha, who owns Security and Intelligence Services (SIS).

The ruling BJP was the largest advertiser on Facebook in India on “social issues, elections and politics” over the last 18 months, spending over Rs 4.61 crore since February 2019, followed by the main opposition Congress party with Rs 1.84 crore, according to data available until August 24 on the social media giant’s spending tracker.

Taken together with the BJP, their ad spend totals Rs 10.17 crore, which is about 64 per cent of the total advertising (Rs 15.81 crore) by the top ten in this category. The period covered includes the general elections in April-May 2019, which saw the BJP return to power with an overwhelming majority.

The other political entity among the top ten in this category is Aam Aadmi Party with a spend of Rs 69 lakh which is the lowest amongst them.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the largest advertiser on the social media giant since 2018 , as concluded from FB spending tracker.   Significantly, recently the American newspaper claimed that Facebook is working under the pressure of the ruling party in India. The matter is still going on in this regard. 

In 2020, BJP was highest earner in FY19 at Rs 2,410 crore while Congress earned Rs. 918 crores which was 4.5 times their previous year’s income.