How much money will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress end up spending in this high-pitched Gujarat elections? The answer to that will emerge in the next three months, as Election Commission (EC) rules mandate that within 75 days of a state election, political parties have to declare as to how much they spent during the election and on what.

In the 2012 Gujarat elections, the total reported expenses of the two parties was about five times that of 2007. The BJP said it spent Rs152 crore—a 10-fold increase over 2007. The Congress disclosed a lower amount (Rs117 crore) and a lower increase.

The EC has limits for a candidate’s election expenditure (Rs16 lakh in assembly elections), but it does not have limits on how much a political party can spend. So, while the BJP reported average expenditure per MLA of Rs8.46 lakh and Congress of Rs8.98 lakh, the effective amount spent per candidate was a multiple of that.

Parties may also spend in cash and kind, which doesn’t get reflected in these numbers. Between 2007 and 2012, both the BJP and Congress showed the share of “travel" in total expenditure coming down. The heads that went up were “publicity" for the BJP and “other expenses" for the Congress, a further break-up of which was not given.

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