NEW DELHI: As Bihar entered its first phase of assembly elections on Wednesday, an Digital Campaign Asia analysis of funds spent by major political parties on campaign advertisements on social media platforms showed BJP’s spending peaked in the weeks ahead of the polls.
The DigiCamp team, headed by Taberez Neyazi of the National University of Singapore, aims to understand how political actors use digital platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for campaigning in Asia.
The analysis has studied the campaign advertisements of political parties on Facebook and Instagram by major political parties in Bihar – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Janata Dal United (JD(U)). While Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) did not officially advertise on Facebook and Instagram, some prominent leaders
Between October 12 - October 26, the money by the BJP spent on social media campaign advertisements peaked during the week of October 19 with the expenditure touching around Rs 1.80 million, according to the analysis, the results for which have been derived from the Facebook/Instagram ads library.
This also translated into its higher number of viewership with almost 18 million views in the corresponding period.
While JDU’s spending was over Rs 1 million before September 28, Congress’s highest spending on campaign ads was around Rs 8 lakh.
In terms of the overall spending, the highest amount of expenditure was by JDU crossing over Rs 4 million, followed by BJP crossing over Rs 3 million.
While Congress spent over Rs 2 million, Lok Janshakti Party and NDA spent less tha Rs 1 million, the analysis showed.
The categorisation of advertisements issued showed that the maximum amount of money spent by the BJP and Congress was on economy-related ads. For JDU, the highest amount of money was spent on governance-related issue. The issue of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death also featured among the different types of advertisements, the analysis showed.
While the BJP spent less funds of ‘negative’ ad tones and spent more on ads with ‘positive’ tones, Congress spent more on ‘negative’ ad tones.
The JDU spent significantly on ‘positive’ ads, the analysis showed.
“Most of the INC ads are negative and attack ads, while most of the JD(U) and BJP ads are positive. This is because the incumbent has to emphasise its achievements, which could be done through positive ads. On the other hand, the opposition parties have to attack the ruling party by relaying negative ads to mobilise voters,” said Neyazi, assistant professor, Department of Communications and New Media, NUS.