April 29, the second and final day of polling in West Bengal, saw over 92% voter turnout, with long queues through the day reflecting the scale of participation in a closely watched election. The spotlight was firmly on Bhabanipur, Mamata Banerjee’s home turf, where a high-voltage contest played out amid visible tension on the ground.
It built on the momentum of the April 23 first phase, which had already recorded strong participation. Even as voting unfolded on the ground, the campaign battle had taken shape online—particularly on Facebook, where ad spending offers a clear window into who pushed hardest, and how.
Data from Facebook’s Ad Library shows the BJP’s West Bengal unit leading the ad spend charts by a wide margin, with over Rs 3.8 crore spent between March 23 and April 21. The Trinamool Congress (AITC) follows far behind, with a little over Rs 87 lakh in spending during the same period.
Among individual leaders, Abhishek Banerjee stands out, having spent more than Rs 88 lakh on Facebook ads in just under a month.
But as seen in previous elections, the official party pages are only one part of the story. A network of surrogate or shadow pages—often run by political consultancies or supporter groups—has also been actively pushing campaign messaging. The page Banglar Gorbo Mamata, operated by the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC)—which has been working with the Trinamool Congress—spent over Rs 51 lakh, making it the biggest spender in this category.
This burst of spending came in the crucial month leading up to polling across all 294 seats in the state. The results are set to be announced on May 4.
Spent By Official Pages
A closer look at spending by official handles shows that, barring a few party pages, most of the ad push is being driven by individual candidates in the fray. The CPI(M)’s West Bengal page spent a little over Rs 2.6 lakh during the period, along with a smaller presence from pages like CPIM-Malda Speaks at around Rs 15,000.
Across the BJP and the Trinamool Congress, several candidates and leaders put money behind their own pages, though the spends remain relatively modest compared to party-level advertising.
Among the higher spenders, TMC leader Gautam Deb stands out with over Rs 78,000, followed by candidates like Mustafizur Rahaman-Suman at around Rs 50,000. BJP candidates such as Debasish Mukherjee and Samarendranath Ghosh spent in the range of Rs 40,000–Rs 42,000.
Others—including TMC’s Somenath Shyam, Subodh Adhikary, Avinaba Bhattacharya and Sujit Bose, as well as BJP’s Susanta Ghosh and Partha Ghosh—spent largely between Rs 25,000 and Rs 40,000.
Congress leaders, including Ranajit Mukherjee and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, along with state president Subhankar Sarkar, showed a comparatively smaller digital footprint, with spends ranging roughly between Rs 7,000 and Rs 22,000.
Beyond individual candidates, the BJP’s West Bengal unit also appears to have invested heavily in hyperlocal campaigning through constituency-specific pages. At least 64 such pages were identified, with spending starting from around Rs 1 lakh on some pages and tapering down to as little as Rs 500 on others—indicating a wide, distributed strategy to target voters at the seat level.
Spent By Surrogate pages
Beyond official handles, Facebook campaigning in Bengal was also being driven by a dense network of surrogate pages—ranging from fan communities and campaign-style support pages to meme accounts and hyperlocal “news” platforms. These pages do not explicitly state any party affiliation, but their content clearly signals where their loyalties lie.
Together, these pages not only amplify party messaging but also shape narratives in more informal, often less transparent ways.
Fan and personality-driven pages
These form a large chunk of this ecosystem, especially around Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, with several high-spending pages pushing largely celebratory or promotional content. Pages like Abar Jitbe Bangla (over Rs 14 lakh), Amader Abhishek (Rs 7 lakh), Didi for PM (Rs 7 lakh), Manusher Mamata (Rs 6.8 lakh), AB Connects (Rs 6.8 lakh), Bae of Bengal (Rs 2.2 lakh), and Abhishek Banerjee Fans (Rs 3.5 lakh) stand out among the bigger spenders in this category.
A dense cluster of pages built around Abhishek Banerjee—such as Team AB (Rs 3.8 lakh), AB for Bengal (Rs 3.7 lakh), Nobo Bangla with Abhishek (Rs 3.7 lakh), and AB for CM (Rs 2.7 lakh)—further points to a coordinated push to build his visibility online. Several of these pages were created as recently as late 2025, suggesting a relatively new but organised digital network.
'Didi For PM', a Mamata Banerjee support page, spent over Rs 7 lakh
Alongside these are Mamata Banerjee-focused pages like Abar Khela Hobe (Rs 3.6 lakh) and Didir Doot (Rs 3.7 lakh), which continue to amplify familiar campaign slogans and messaging.
Similar hyperlocal fan pages also appear around individual leaders. For instance, pages like Siliguri with Gautam Deb (Rs 21,000) and Amar Siliguri Amar Adhikar (Rs 16,000) focus on constituency-level outreach. Meanwhile, pages such as Kulti’r Sathe Abhijit and Ebar Kulti’te Abhijit (around Rs 9,000 each) support Abhijit Ghatak—a Trinamool Congress leader and candidate from the Kulti constituency—showing how even local candidates are being backed by dedicated fan pages.
News-style and vox pop pages
This category of pages presents itself as informational platforms, but often carries clear political leanings—both in content and in ad spend. Pages like Ami Bangla (over Rs 6.3 lakh) and Bengal 24x7 (around Rs 1.8 lakh) shared vox pop-style videos and posts highlighting public support for state government schemes, while Bangla Bolcche (around Rs 87,000) used hashtags like #BengalNeedsChange to frame messaging that leans towards the BJP.
On the BJP’s side, pages such as Bengal Updates (around Rs 2.7 lakh) and Banglar Awaj (over Rs 23,000) pushed narratives around governance change, including claims about ending “cut money” and “syndicate raj”. There is also a visible cluster of BJP-supporting pages linked to Modexifyes—a digital marketing and political advertising firm—such as Bengal Rising Voice (Rs 59,000), Namo Connect India (Rs 43,000), and Bengal Change Makers (Rs 40,000).
Bengal Updates, which posted content favouring the BJP, spent about Rs 2.7 lakh
Support and smear pages
These pages take a more aggressive approach, blending campaign messaging with sharp political attacks. Pages like Bajro Konthe, which ran posts warning that “love” and even “biryani” would be under threat if the BJP comes to power, and Ami Banglar Digital Joddha, which pushed themes around protecting Bengal and voting rights, fall into this category. These pages spent to the tune of Rs 5-8 lakh and were created in November 2025.
Meme-driven pages such as Mir Jafar Suvendu, which targets BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and uses AI-generated content, spent over Rs 6.5 lakh. Others like Hawa ko Neta (over Rs 41,000) and Abar Khela Hobe (Rs 3.6 lakh) continued the familiar slogan-driven and culture-heavy messaging seen in past elections.
Notably, at least nine pages linked to IPAC—which is working with the Trinamool Congress—were actively running ads, with spends ranging from about Rs 10,000 to Rs 51 lakh. These include pages like Banglar Gorbo Mamata, Murshidabad'er Gorbo Mamata, and Birbhum'er Gorbo Mamata, forming the backbone of a broader support campaign.
In the run-up to polling, however, the campaign ecosystem around I-PAC faced a significant disruption. On April 13, the Enforcement Directorate arrested I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal, just days before voting began.
The timing of the arrest, alongside earlier searches and summons targeting I-PAC-linked individuals, effectively slowed or disrupted parts of the outfit’s on-ground and digital campaign operations during the crucial final stretch. A day after polling concluded, Chandel was granted bail by a Delhi court, with the ED not opposing his plea.
Despite this, a wider ecosystem of surrogate pages continued to drive the campaign online. Taken together, these surrogate pages—whether as fan hubs, attack platforms, or quasi-news outlets—show how Facebook campaigning in Bengal extends far beyond official party accounts, creating a layered and highly distributed digital push in the final weeks before polling.
