Bihar polls: PK’s Jan Suraaj Party second highest spender on digital ads after BJP

An analysis of Meta ad spending by political parties in Bihar ahead of the elections throws up a surprise: Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, a political newbie which is fighting elections for the first time, has spent more money on digital ads than Congress, JD(U) and RJD taken together. BJP remains the top spender.

While BJP’s large digital advertising budget reflects its strong political position and robust public presence, Jan Suraaj Party, established just a year back, surpassing other major parties to become the second-largest advertiser on digital platforms goes to show Prashant Kishor’s all-out efforts to make a mark in its first electoral foray. 

After professionally leading successful election campaigns for several parties in multiple states, political strategist Prashant Kishor took the plunge into electoral politics in 2024 by founding the Jan Suraaj Party on October 2, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Before that, he spent almost two years connecting with people by walking through villages across Bihar.

The first phase of voting for the Bihar assembly elections was held on November 6. The second and last phase is on the 11th instant. 

According to a report by the Google Ads Transparency Center, the BJP spent approximately ₹ 6.75 crore on political advertising in Bihar through Google and YouTube in October. The Jan Suraaj Party spent approximately ₹1.10 crore through SIMPLESENSE ANALYTICS PRIVATE LIMITED. The Janata Dal (United) spent approximately ₹28 Lakh, while Congress spent only ₹17,250.

(This data covers advertisements run by political parties through Google and YouTube from October 1 to October 31.)

According to the data available in the ad library of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, BJP spent around Rs 1.77 crore on Facebook, Instagram etc., Jan Suraaj Party spent around Rs 1.21 crore, Janata Dal (United) spent around Rs 63 Lakh, Congress spent around Rs 7.41 Lakh, while RJD spent around Rs 6.16 Lakh.

(This data is from the top 100 pages spending the most on political ads on Facebook and Instagram between October 2 and October 31 (30 days of October) via Meta. The full data for the state of Bihar between these dates can be downloaded from the Meta Ad Library at the link provided here.)

Here are the names and expenditure data of the Facebook pages through which political parties ran advertisements on Facebook and Instagram:

BJP

Jan Suraaj

Janata Dal (United)

RJD

Congress

According to combined data from Meta and Google’s Ad Library, the BJP was the highest spender on political advertising in Bihar in October, spending approximately ₹8.52 crore. The Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) came in second, spending approximately ₹2.32 crore. The Janata Dal (United) came in third, spending approximately ₹92 Lakh. Congress was the fourth highest spender at approximately ₹7.59 Lakh. RJD came in fifth, spending approximately ₹6.16 Lakh.

This shows that the Jan Suraaj Party, contesting elections for the first time in Bihar, has not only emerged as the second-largest digital advertising spender, but the amount spent by the party in digital campaign is higher than all other parties taken together, except BJP.