Chennaai, Sept 26:
The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has reported election expenditure of ₹19.8 crore for the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, making its declared spending around one-tenth of the ₹197.84 crore reported by the ruling DMK.
The AIADMK has reported expenditure of ₹112.39 crore for the elections. The expenditure details have been submitted to the Election Commission as required under the election rules.
The Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Assembly elections were held in April, following which political parties that contested the polls were required to submit their election income and expenditure statements to the Election Commission. The DMK, AIADMK and Naam Tamilar Katchi had already filed their expenditure statements, while the TVK’s statement has now been made public.
According to the TVK’s filing, the party spent ₹19.81 crore in total for the election. Of this, ₹6.34 crore was spent on advertising, ₹3.54 crore on the air travel of party chief and Chief Minister candidate Vijay, ₹2.06 crore on public meetings and roadshows and ₹40.54 lakh on publicity material. Another report based on the expenditure statement puts the advertising expenditure at ₹6.35 crore and publicity-material expenditure at ₹40.55 lakh.
The expenditure statement, signed by TVK treasurer P Venkataramanan, shows that the party headquarters incurred ₹19.4 crore on general election propaganda. Interestingly, the statement records zero expenditure by the party directly on its candidates, indicating that the candidates themselves bore the expenses of their respective campaigns.
Vijay’s air travel accounted for ₹3.55 crore according to the detailed filing. Four payments were made between March 14 and April 28 to TAI Jets Pvt Ltd, Chipsan Aviation Pvt Ltd and Fly High Global Aircraft Management Services Pvt Ltd. No expenditure was reported on the air travel of other party leaders.
The filing also shows that the TVK did not report expenditure on virtual campaigning through social media platforms. Media advertising, covering print, electronic media and radio, was the largest component of its general propaganda expenditure, accounting for about ₹6.35 crore. This included a payment of ₹1.79 crore to Voice of Common Strategic Consulting Private Limited, a company associated with Aadhav Arjuna, who is now a minister.
The party spent ₹2.06 crore on public meetings and roadshows, while ₹40.54 crore was not the figure for publicity material; rather, the expenditure statement records ₹40.54 lakh for such material, listed under the description “books”.
The TVK’s election-period finances also show that the party had an opening balance of ₹3.03 crore when the Assembly election was announced. It received ₹7.02 crore during the election period through various sources.
The TVK contested 233 of the 234 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu and won 108 seats.
In comparison, the DMK reported total election expenditure of ₹197.84 crore. The party had ₹365 crore in hand before the election and received ₹126 crore in donations during the election period. It spent ₹70 crore on newspaper, television and social media advertisements and ₹5.90 crore on the air travel of DMK president M K Stalin and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan. The DMK reported ₹149.89 crore as election campaign expenditure and had ₹319.39 crore remaining after the election-related spending.
The AIADMK reported election expenditure of ₹112.39 crore for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. It had ₹313 crore in hand before the election and received ₹87.41 crore during the election period. Of its total expenditure, ₹103 crore was paid to Pramanya Strategy Consulting for social media and media advertising. The party had around ₹295 crore in its bank account after the election.
Naam Tamilar Katchi reported ₹1.37 crore in election expenditure. It had ₹19 lakh before the election and received ₹2.20 crore during the election period. Of its expenditure, ₹93 lakh went towards campaigning and advertising and ₹44 lakh towards candidates. The party provided election funds ranging from ₹20,000 to its candidates to ₹5 lakh to senior leaders including Seeman, and had ₹64 lakh remaining after the election.