Narendra Modi Spent Less Than Ajai Rai, Arvind Kejriwal In Varanasi Poll Campaign

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal had spent about half-a-crore rupees during his election campaign against Narendra Modi, even though he claimed that his party was cash-strapped.

According to the details submitted to the district administration, Congress candidate Ajay Rai spent Rs 54.45 lakh, Arvind Kejriwal spent Rs 50.10 lakh and Narendra Modi spent Rs 37.62 lakh.

Varanasi’s Chief Treasury Officer Ramamurthy Dwivedi said that Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Kailash Chaurasiya spent Rs 24.54 lakh while Indira Tiwari of Trinamool Congress spent Rs 14.58 lakh.

According to Varanasi officials, the BJP spent the most (Rs 9.41 lakh) on publicity material, such as handbills, pamphlets, posters, CDs and cassettes.

Samajwadi Party put in Rs 13.20 lakh on publicity while Congress topped the publicity expenditure list, spending a whopping Rs 24.92 lakh on digital media channels, such as SMS, cable network, the Internet and social media.

AAP’s Purvanchal zone convenor Sanjeev Singh claimed that the BJP’s actual expenditure was much higher. “They distributed lakhs of T-shirts and saffron gamchhas (towels) throughout Varanasi. There was unaccounted publicity material funded by corporate houses and then there was publicity material in disguise. The best examples are, perhaps, the huge hoardings for Gujarat Tourism in Varanasi,” he said.