Chennai
oi-Prakash KL
The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) spent ₹19.81 crore on the Tamil Nadu Assembly election campaign, according to its expenditure statement filed with the Election Commission of India.
The figure is a fraction of the spending declared by the state’s two major Dravidian parties, with the DMK reporting ₹197.84 crore and the AIADMK ₹112.39 crore, UNI reported. The expenditure disclosures offer a glimpse into how Vijay’s relatively new political outfit went about its first Assembly election campaign.
The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) spent ₹19.81 crore on the Tamil Nadu Assembly election campaign, significantly less than the DMK (₹197.84 crore) and AIADMK (₹112.39 crore), reporting major advertising costs and leader travel but no direct candidate expenses.
Vijay’s own campaign travel emerged as one of the bigger expenses. The TVK reported spending about ₹3.55 crore on his air travel during the election period. Four payments made between March 14 and April 28 went to TAI Jets Pvt Ltd, Chipsan Aviation Pvt Ltd and Fly High Global Aircraft Management Services Pvt Ltd.
The party did not report similar air-travel expenses for its other leaders.
Advertising was the single biggest component of the TVK’s declared expenditure. Around ₹6.34 crore was spent on advertising, covering print, television and radio. The filing also shows a payment of around ₹1.79 crore to Voice of Common Strategic Consulting Private Limited.
The party spent another ₹2.06 crore on public meetings and roadshows. Its expenditure on publicity material was ₹40.54 lakh, listed under “books” in the filing.
No direct spending reported for candidates
One detail that stands out in the TVK’s filing is the absence of expenditure shown directly against its candidates.
The statement signed by TVK Treasurer P Venkataramanan records around ₹19.4 crore as expenditure by the party headquarters towards general election propaganda, but shows no spending by the party directly on its candidates. The filing therefore indicates that the candidates met the expenses of their individual campaigns.
The TVK has also not shown a separate expenditure head for virtual campaigning through social media platforms.
The party had ₹3.03 crore in its account when the Assembly election was announced and received ₹7.02 crore during the election period from various sources.
TVK contested 233 of the 234 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu.
How much did DMK and AIADMK spend?
The gap becomes clearer when the TVK figures are placed alongside the expenditure reported by the DMK and AIADMK.
The DMK declared ₹197.84 crore in election expenditure. It had around ₹365 crore before the polls and received ₹126 crore in donations during the election period.
Of this, about ₹70 crore went towards newspaper, television and social media advertising. The party also reported ₹5.90 crore in air-travel expenses for DMK president M K Stalin and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan.
The AIADMK reported ₹112.39 crore in election expenditure for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. It had around ₹313 crore before the election and received ₹87.41 crore during the campaign period.
The party’s largest reported expense was ₹103 crore paid to Pramanya Strategy Consulting for social media and media advertising.
The Naam Tamilar Katchi, led by Seeman, reported the lowest expenditure among the four parties at ₹1.37 crore. It had ₹19 lakh before the election and received ₹2.20 crore during the election period.
The NTK spent ₹93 lakh on campaigning and advertising and ₹44 lakh on its candidates. Its filing shows that election funds given to candidates ranged from ₹20,000 to ₹5 lakh for senior leaders, including Seeman. The party had ₹64 lakh left after the election.
