MUMBAI: The general elections of 2019 are just around the corner and for the past few months a feirce political battle is ensuing in some of the major Indian states including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Rajasthan. No party is leaving any stone unturned in promoting its agendas in this politically charged season but Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is surely leading this battle of advertisements.

As per ad-insertion calculation for the period of August-November 2018 – released by AdEx India, a part of TAM Media Research – BJP tops the share of advertisements across television, print, and radio at 58 per cent, which is nearly 2.5 times more than the rival Congress. However, they both collectively contribute a massive 85 per cent to the overall ad-insertion share of political parties.  

The following parties lag much behind in terms of ad-insertions with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Jana Sena Party contributing three per cent and two per cent respectively, given the state assembly elections in Telangana.Regional Party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) stands at the 5th position with two per cent ad-insertions that can be attributed to the death of  M Karunanidhi  in August.

Meanwhile, BJP topped the ad-insertions in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh that went into polls on 28:November as well, owing 73 per cent share. The state also saw a rise in ad-insertions made by the political parties on TV (1.9 times) and radio (2.3 times) as compared to the previous assembly elections. However, the ad-insertions in the print medium saw a dip of 74 percent.