Analysing the social media and advertising campaigns of the BJP and the Congress

In the ever-evolving landscape of political campaigning, advertisements and social media campaigns have emerged as the unsung heroes of political strategy. Studies conducted by the CSDS-Lokniti on spokespersons of the BJP and Congress as well as both part

study conducted by CSDS-Lokniti monitored the X handles of ve spokespersons each from the BJP and the Congress. The study examined 798 tweets till early April. Of these, 378 were attributed to spokespersons of the Congress, while 420 with the BJP.

ALocal and national issues

53% of the BJP’s posts focused on local issues while 48% focused on national issues. It was 14% and 86% respectively for the Congress (Table 1).

For the BJP, among the 53% local issues, the most discussed were local campaigns in panchayats and Assemblies — covering almost 58%. The most discussed national issues were political campaigns but these were mostly short clips of major rallies of Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah, and J.P. Nadda, covering 24% of all national issues. For the Congress, among its 14% of local issues, the most discussed were Congress party functionaries and local rallies, covering almost 19%. The most discussed national issues were posts covering the Congress manifesto, which covered 19%, and posts critiquing the ruling party, which covered 15% (Table 2).

Jibes and promises

For the BJP, of its 25% negative posts, 45% posts were targeted towards the Opposition, while of its 75% positive posts, 53% were related to posts of local and national political campaigns. For the Congress, of its 75% negative posts, 19% and 15% critiqued the ruling party and the PM respectively while of its 23% positive posts, 46% were on party functionaries, and 44% on its manifesto (Table 3).

The posts made by the BJP appear more coordinated and strategic in comparison to the Congress. This conclusion is drawn based on the use of hashtags. Most BJP posts use the hashtags in two combinations: #BJP4Development, #ModiHaiToMumkinHai together; and #PhirEkBaarModiSaarkar, and #ApkiBaar400Paar #Viksit (localised) together. Congress, on the other hand, uses its respective hashtags sparingly without any discernible combination or pattern. They also lack a localised hashtag like BJP’s, appearing less connected.

The BJP has long since established PM Modi as the face of their party and is seemingly continuing the trend this election. At the same time, the Congress too is focused on Mr. Modi. Instead of establishing Rahul Gandhi as a comparable gure to Modi, the Congress is attempting to undermine the validity of PM Modi’s candidature by exposing his and the ruling party’s inadequacies.

The electoral advertisement blitz

We also monitored 900 advertisements by the BJP and the Congress running on March 18 (irrespective of the date of their origin) across Google platforms, including YouTube (Source: Google Ads Transparency Centre). During this 24-hour period, while the BJP posted 1,111 ads, INC posted 10 ads. BJP broke its record in ad spending, for the last ve years, in February 2024, surpassing what it spent since February 2019 (Source:

Google Political Ads CSV le).

While the BJP as well as the INC employed location-based targeting, no gender or age lters were used by either party. The BJP targeted the majority of its ads in Andhra Pradesh (50%) and Odisha (39%). The remaining 11% of the ads were targeted at multiple States, mostly from the Hindi belt (Table 2). The study of such location-speci c targeting, along with its correlation with expenditure and theme of ads, has revealed both parties’ selective approach to engagement with di¥erent parts of India.

In Andhra Pradesh, where a staggering 50% of BJP’s ads were targeted, around 53% of them were dedicated to infrastructure development. A similar trend is observed in Odisha, where majority of the ads were focused on this theme (39%). In Odisha, the BJP’s focus seems to be on the youth demographic, with most of the ads highlighting training programs, employment opportunities, and educational institutions (Table 2). These ads proudly announced the establishment of AIIMS, IITs, and IIMs in the State even though there is only one AIIMS in Bhubaneswar, which was established in 2012 before the Modi government rose to power. (In such ads targeted to Odisha, Bhubaneswar has been excluded.) Interestingly, ads appealing for donations in the name of “Viksit Bharat” were displayed in all States and UTs. However, ads soliciting suggestions for the manifesto speci cally excluded South Indian states. The INC ads on ‘PehleNaukriPakki’ and a massive investment project of ₹500 crore for start-ups excluded most north Indian States. However, ads targeting speci c locations in major north Indian States focused on loan waivers for farmers and the reduction of GST in the Minimum Support Price. The ads targeted towards the northeastern States focused on employment and job security. Unlike the BJP, no Congress ads asked for donations.

The maximum spending by the BJP was on ads related to its manifesto, donation requests, and infrastructure. While BJP, on average, had spent under ₹10,000 per ad for most of the ads (79.8%), a disproportionately high amount was spent (₹4,00,000 per ad) for some of the ads focusing on infrastructure and developmental projects. In contrast, Congress’s highest spending in this period goes up to ₹3,00,000 per ad on video. While the Congress was not relying much on Google ads, the BJP is spending substantially on digital ads advertising.

Sanjay Kumar, a Professor at CSDS,

Aditi Singh, Assistant Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University, Anagha V. Nair, Subhayan Acharya, researchers with CSDS worked on the study on social media. Sanjay Kumar, Aditi Singh, Jyoti Mishra, a Research Associate with CSDS, and Abhishek Sharma, a researcher with CSDS worked on the ads study.