Congress spent Rs 585 cr on Lok Sabha, 4 state polls

The Congress, which had claimed a cash crunch ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, spent around Rs 585 crore on the parliamentary polls and the state elections held alongside. Nearly 70 per cent of it was spent on media campaigns and advertisements.

In its election expenditure report for the General Election and the Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim, the Congress said it has spent Rs 410 crore on advertisements and media campaigns and around Rs 46 crore on virtual campaigns through social media, apps and other means.

The party also told the Election Commission that it spent around Rs 105 crore on air travel for its star campaigners during the high-pitched Lok Sabha poll campaign, including on party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, besides Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other leaders.

The Congress also gave a lump sum payment of Rs 11.20 crore to its key Lok Sabha candidates, including Rahul Gandhi and some others, to contest the elections.

The party spent a total of Rs 68.62 crore on printing of posters, banners, hoardings and other publicity material during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

At the time of the announcement of the LS election, the Congress had a total of Rs 170 crore with it in the form of various deposits and it received as much as Rs 539.37 crore as gross receipts in various forms, including Rs 13.76 crore in cash deposits.

The principal opposition party had raised a hue and cry ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election as some of its bank accounts were frozen by the Income Tax department, over disputes of Income Tax Returns during the previous years.

However, the accounts were later de-freezed after the issue reached the courts. The Congress won 99 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats in the general election and emerged as the principal opposition party. The BJP returned to power for the third consecutive term.