In five state assembly polls, seven national and 16 regional parties spent Rs 494.36 crore, though they had collected Rs 1503.21 crore for the exercise. Interestingly, 56 per cent of the expenses was on publicity while the rest was on travel, ‘lump sum amount’ to candidates and miscellaneous expenses.
As per the data, the BJP spent the highest amount of Rs 152.63 crore - or 60.42 per cent of its total expenditure on publicity while the Congress spent most on the ‘lump sum amount’ paid to candidates, which was to the tune of Rs 39.83 crore or 53.64 per cent of its total expenditure.

The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) was the only national party that incurred no expenditure either at the central or at the state unit level despite contesting in Manipur and Punjab assembly elections. Despite contesting in three assembly elections: Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Shiv Sena declared that the party incurred no expenditure towards their election campaign in these states.

The analysis, which was undertaken by the Association of Democratic Reforms(ADR), found that the national parties spent a total of Rs 189.46 crore on publicity while the regional parties declared a total of Rs 110.77 crore under the same head.

The total funds collected by the national parties during the five state assembly elections held in 2017 was Rs 1314.29 crore, while their total spend was Rs 328.66 crore.