BJP’s social media spending was far higher than Congress’s | Data Premium

In the recent Assembly elections, apart from official handles, non-party handles from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh spent lakhs on political ads

Significant amounts were allocated for ads on Facebook and Instagram | Photo Credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON

Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) investigated the expenditure on online advertisement campaigns by the BJP and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. We found in the three studies that significant amounts were allocated for ads on Facebook and Instagram. For the purposes of the study, we used Meta Ad library archives. Meta Ad Library is an open-source archive of ads across Meta’s products. It contains information on spend, reach, and funding activities. The ads about social issues, elections and politics are visible, whether active or inactive and are stored in the Ad library for seven years.

Table 1 | Amount of money spent by political parties on online ad campaigns in the 90 days preceding the State elections

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Madhya Pradesh

This study takes into account the ads posted by @INCMadhyaPradesh and @BJPMadhyaPradesh. In the 90 days preceding the elections, the BJP’s expenditure was more than that of the Congress (Table 1). The BJP spent about Rs. 94 lakh and the Congress spent about Rs. 72 lakh. However, this trend reversed if only the last 30 days before the elections were considered as the Congress spent nearly double the amount spent by the BJP.

Table 2A | The table is the list of the top 10 spenders on Facebook, according to the Meta Ad archives for Madhya Pradesh.

For the purposes of our study, we have only taken into account the @BJPMadhyaPradesh and @INCMadhyaPradesh accounts. However, there are multiple other non-party accounts posting political ads. The top 10 accounts have spent a significant total amount of Rs. 1.1 crore. 

Table 3 | The table shows the thematic profiles of ads posted in the last 30 days by @BJPMadhyaPradesh (Table 3A) and @INCMadhyaPradesh (Table 3B) across Facebook and Instagram.

Table 3A and Table 3B show that almost 30% of the ads posted by @BJPMadhyaPradesh focused on encouraging voters to vote for the BJP. This was followed by ads on the manifesto (27%). Nearly 25% of ads posted by @INCMadhyaPradesh were based on the Congress manifesto. Almost 19% of the ads were personal attacks that were majorly focused on BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

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Chhattisgarh

The BJP account spent a sum of Rs. 79.7 lakh in the last 90 days leading to the election, whereas the Congress account spent an amount of Rs. 4.7 lakh (Table 1).

Table 2B | The table is the list of the top 10 spenders on Facebook, according to the Meta Ad archives for Chhattisgarh.

Among the top 10 spenders on ads in the State, six belonged to non-party and non-candidate campaigners.

Table 4 | The table shows the thematic profiles of ads posted in the last 30 days by @BJPChhattisgarh (Table 4A) and @INCChhattisgarh (Table 4B) across Facebook and Instagram.

A total of 592 BJP ads and 93 Congress ads, posted in the last 30 days, were monitored and profiled thematically (Table 4A and 4B). We found that nearly 42% of the BJP’s Chhattisgarh posts were focused on seeking votes. This was followed by ads on the party’s manifesto and promises, popularised under the caption ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ (19%) and allegations of corruption (12%). Of all the ads posted by the Congress, most were against the BJP and its shortcomings (21%). This was followed by ads on the Congress manifesto (19%).

Rajasthan

This study takes into account the ads posted by @BJP4Rajasthan and @INCRajasthan. In the 90 days preceding the elections, the expenditure of the BJP was much higher than the Congress (Table 1). The BJP spent about Rs. 94 lakh and the Congress spent about Rs. 2.18 lakh.

Table 5 | The table lists the amount spent on negative ads in Rajasthan.

Based on the thematic analysis of the ads, we found that the BJP spent more than the Congress on ads with negative undertones. The party spent a total of Rs. 2.3 lakh-Rs. 2.8 lakh on such ads. (Table 5)

Source: Meta Ad library archives, an open source archive of ads across Meta’s products that contains information on spend, reach and funding activities

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