BJP spent over Rs 61 crore for Modi's 3D campaign in Lok Sabha elections
New Delhi: BJP spent over Rs 61 crore on the unique 3D-style poll campaign of its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election. It also shelled out a whopping over Rs 304 crore on other audio-visual media campaigns for the same electoral battle.
The figures are part of the election expenditure details furnished by the party to the Election Commission (EC) recently.
The party has said that in all, it spent over Rs 714 crore for political campaign during the Lok Sabha polls held last year and the Assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.
The figures are part of the election expenditure details furnished by the party to the Election Commission (EC) recently.
While the party said it spent a total of Rs 51,36,00,000 for the 3D campaign of Modi's rallies, it also paid a licence fee of Rs 10 crore for the launch and execution of this modern multi-media campaign where Modi was beamed to the public in a virtual projection of his three-dimensional imagery.
BJP has been the first to use this technology to execute political and poll-related campaigning in the country and Modi successfully used it first during his Gujarat Assembly election campaign in 2012.
The party said it spent a total of Rs 3,04,50,58,995 (over Rs 304 crore) as expenses on media advertising in print and electronic media, sending of bulk SMSes, campaigning through cable, websites and TV channels for the party in the run up to the general election which gave the party an absolute majority power at the Centre.
The data also said a total of Rs 77,83,75,655 (over Rs 77.83 crore) was spent on the travel expenses, specially by air, of its star campaigners and party leaders like Modi, Rajnath Singh, LK Advani, M Venkaiah Naidu, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley, among others.
On publicity material like posters, banners, badges, stickers, arches, gates, cutouts, hoardings, flags and buntings, among others, the party said it spent over Rs 14 crore during the same election period.
As per rules, political parties are required to file their election expenditure statements within 75 days of Assembly elections while the deadline in case of Lok Sabha polls is 90 days. BJP submitted this data after the deadline period to the EC.
 FILE – PTI PHOTO It is no secret that India's general elections are one of the most expensive in the world. Last year, India's General Elections that catapulted Narendra Modi from Gujarat to the national capital was considered the second-most expensive election ever after Barack Obama's campaign. The contrast between the two is evident: the US is one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world. In the eyes of many, India remains a developing nation. Nevertheless, ho-hum was the typical reaction when the nation got to know about the high cost (Rs 60 crore) of Modi's 3D campaigns. The Times of India reported:
While many estimates were flowing in about how much India had spent in the 2014 elections, Outlook had done its own calculations and arrived at the conclusion that a mind boggling Rs 31,950 crore was spent in general elections 2014. That's a little over $ 5.2 billion, which is ten times the Rs 3,426 crore the Indian government spent on conducting the elections. The Outlook report said:
Of the Indian total, the BJP alone is estimated to have spent two thirds — or over Rs 21,000 crore — in the elections that brought them to the throne. |
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