The Congress spent more than thrice as much as the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections in February, according to the full expenditure reports of parties uploaded on the Election Commission (EC) website.

The Congress, AAP, CPM, and the BSP’s full expenditure reports have been uploaded on the EC website. Only the “part election expenditure” of the BJP has been uploaded and hence cannot be compared.

The AAP, which lost power after a decade, spent a little over ₹14.5 crore on campaigning. The party won 22 out of 70 seats, down from the 62 in 2020. The Congress spent ₹46.2 crore. Its tally remained at zero.

Major expenditures were on media and advertising for both. The biggest beneficiary of Congress’s ad spend was Initiative Media, an advertising firm that has worked for brands like Amazon and Unilever. Initiative Media received almost ₹14.5 crore from the party for print and TV ads. AAP’s main beneficiary was Google, which got more than ₹1.4 crore for ads.