With Assembly elections in Delhi just a week away, all major contenders have intensified their campaigns, both on the streets and on social media. Along with rallies and meetings, political parties are spending a bomb on alternate media platforms to promote themselves.

India Today Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) pulled out data of political advertisements on Facebook between January 2 and February 1 and found that Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led digital advertising on the social media platform.

The AAP's Facebook page published advertisements worth over Rs 42 lakh in a month - the highest among all major parties. It is followed by the Delhi unit of the Congress party.

While the BJP's ad spending on Facebook comes at number three, these ads have nothing to do with Delhi elections. If only ad spending related to Delhi polls is considered, then the BJP's state unit features at the fifth position.

WHO SPENT WHAT

The AAP spent a little over Rs 42 lakh on Facebook ads in the last one month, followed by Delhi INC at Rs 19.4 lakh. The BJP (national page) spent Rs 13.8 lakh on ads promoting Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal's fan page 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' was the fourth most advertised page, spending Rs 13.6 lakh. The Delhi BJP page comes at number 5, spending Rs 7.6 lakh on its Facebook ads, almost four times less than AAP.

It is worth noting here that during the Lok Sabha elections last year, the BJP had spent aggressively on Facebook ads, doling out Rs 2.6 crore in just eight weeks.

SUPPORTING AND FAN PAGES

DIU scanned all the pages that had spent over Rs 1 lakh on Facebook ads. There were 35 such pages which were advertised for more than Rs 1 lakh in the last one month. Of these, 10 were pro-BJP, nine were pro-AAP and only two were supporting Congress.

Here too, pro-AAP pages were found to have spent more than pro-BJP pages. The nine pro-AAP pages spent more than Rs 71 lakh on Facebook ads (all related to Delhi elections), while the BJP's ad spending was somewhere around Rs 42 lakh. Of these, Rs 21 lakh were spent on Delhi election-related posts.

The only two pro-Congress pages which spent more than Rs 1 lakh on Facebook ads were Delhi Congress and Kasturba Nagar Congress candidate Abhishek Dutt. Ad spending on these pages was over Rs 20 lakh.

WHAT ARE THEY ADVERTISING?

In the past one month, AAP published 521 ads on Facebook, Delhi Congress 552 and Delhi BJP only 22.

The AAP's posts mostly advertised the party's claims of transforming various areas of Delhi. In some of its videos, starring Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP tries to convince BJP supporters to vote for it.

The BJP, on the other hand, published ads on how it has changed the country and is willing to change Delhi in the same way. Some of its videos also try to deflate various claims made by the AAP regarding Delhi's development. Posts made by Congress broadly show how it had transformed Delhi during its rule and promises to do them again.

Clubbed together, AAP and the Delhi units of BJP and Congress have around 76 lakh followers on Facebook. Of these, 42 lakh follow AAP, 29 lakh follow BJP and only 5 lakh follow the Delhi Congress page. But how far this digital footprint will impact voting patterns on February 8, we'll leave it to Delhi's voters to decide.