Overall, Tamil Nadu had the highest total spend, with all parties together having spent ₹45 crore in the state.

If one has been tuning in to YouTube in Tamil Nadu over the past few weeks, ‘Stalin Thodaratum’ , ‘Edapaadi yaaare’, and TVK’s peppy anthem — are now likely stuck in their heads.

While political ads on YouTube and other websites have been around for a while, regional and national parties stepped up their game for the 2026 poll season.

A businessline analysis of Google’s Ad transparency data shows Indian parties (and their advertisement affiliates) spent ₹97.6 crore across nearly 17,000 political ads between March 1 and April 20, 2026. This data, dynamically updated by Google based on user engagement with the ads, is as of 6pm on April 21. Out of the total ad spend, roughly ₹85 crore was spent on videos, ₹11 crore on images and remaining on text ads.

Poll season

The spend, which is expected to grow further over the next few days, dwarfs the roughly ₹30 crore that was spent during the entire poll season in 2021 (March 1-April 30) when the five states in the fray now had previously gone to polls.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), through its advertising partners Populus Empowerment Network (PEN) and others, has been the highest spender with more than ₹33.3 crore spent almost entirely for ads directed towards Tamil Nadu.

It initially ran ads where high-profile actors and business leaders from the State spoke on the incumbent DMK’s achievements. Over recent weeks, the ads have been about Opposition leader Eddapadi Palaniswami being subservient to Delhi alongside the Stalin anthem.

The party has significantly ramped up its ad spending in the last few weeks, having spent nearly ₹27 crore in April alone.

Digital advertising

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who have been traditionally dominant in digital advertising, was the next highest spender, having chalked out ₹23 crore in total. Unlike the DMK, the national party, with electoral ambitions in multiple states has portioned its proceeds accordingly.

Out of the total, ₹9.2 crore was spent for ads shown in West Bengal with Tamil Nadu (₹5 crore), Assam (₹4.2 crore) Kerala (₹3.6 crore) and Pudhucherry (₹90 lakh) securing the remaining funds.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), through its partner Indian Pac Consulting, spent nearly ₹9.8 crore while the AIADMK through Spangle PR & Media spent about ₹6 crore. 

The Indian National Congress, by itself and in partnership with its agencies spent about ₹5.5 crore with a bulk of this in Kerala and rest split across the other poll-bound states.

Overall, Tamil Nadu had the highest total spend, with all parties together having spent ₹45 crore in the state. West Bengal with ₹25 crore, Kerala with ₹7 crore and Assam with ₹5.5 crore followed, data showed. 

Published on April 21, 2026