New Delhi / Guwahati, Sept. 9: The Bharatiya Janata Party spent ₹96.27 crore on its election campaign in Assam during the 2026 Assembly polls — more than four times the ₹22.62 crore spent by the Congress on general party propaganda in the state — according to expenditure statements filed with the Election Commission of India.
Assam accounted for the largest share of the BJP’s poll expenditure among the three states for which its statements have so far been made public. Of the total ₹96.27 crore spent in the state, ₹76.73 crore was allocated to general party propaganda, while ₹19.54 crore went towards candidates and related expenses.
Advertising emerged as the single biggest component of the BJP’s general propaganda expenditure in Assam, accounting for around ₹37 crore. Travel expenses of star campaigners formed the next major head, amounting to ₹27.3 crore. Together, advertisements and star campaigner travel accounted for nearly ₹64 crore of the party’s Assam propaganda bill. The state unit also spent approximately ₹8.9 crore on publicity material and ₹2.3 crore on other expenses. The central unit of the BJP contributed ₹23.1 crore towards the general propaganda expenditure in Assam.
On the candidate side, the BJP paid a lump-sum amount of ₹19.4 crore to its candidates and spent ₹16.7 lakh on publishing the criminal antecedents of candidates, as required under election rules.
In comparison, the Congress reported spending ₹22.62 crore on general party propaganda in Assam. This was the party’s second-highest state-wise propaganda expenditure after Kerala, where it spent ₹59.28 crore.
The figures highlight a significant disparity in the financial resources available to the two parties during the five-state Assembly election cycle. Across Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry — the three states for which BJP expenditure details are currently available — the party spent a total of around ₹160 crore. Assam alone accounted for ₹96.27 crore of this amount, followed by Tamil Nadu at ₹51.6 crore and Puducherry at ₹11.9 crore.
The BJP’s central headquarters reported net receipts of nearly ₹1,473 crore during the election period covering West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. This was more than seven times the ₹207 crore in net receipts reported by the Congress across its central and state units. The BJP’s closing balance rose from ₹6,722.6 crore on March 15 to ₹7,627.2 crore by the time the election process concluded on May 6.
Political observers note that the scale of spending in Assam reflects the high priority the BJP accorded to retaining power in the state. The party had mounted a high-visibility campaign featuring extensive advertising, frequent visits by star campaigners and intensive organisational mobilisation across the 126 Assembly constituencies.
The Congress, which finished as the main opposition, operated with a significantly smaller campaign budget. Its Assam unit’s propaganda expenditure of ₹22.62 crore was less than a quarter of the BJP’s overall spend in the state.
The Election Commission is yet to make public the BJP’s detailed expenditure statements for West Bengal and Kerala. Once those figures are released, a fuller picture of the party’s nationwide campaign spending during the 2026 Assembly elections will emerge.
For now, the available data underscores the financial asymmetry that characterised the electoral contest in Assam, where the ruling BJP’s campaign outlay substantially outstripped that of its principal rival.