Reviewed 10 October 2026. Every campaign in India now runs on phones, and most campaign teams have never read the rules the phones run under. The rules are not long. They are just scattered across an Act, a code, a set of Commission directions and three platform policies. Here they are on one page. This is a plain-language guide, not legal advice; the campaign's counsel reads the originals.
1. The spending cap: Section 77
Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, read with Rule 90 of the Conduct of Election Rules, caps what a candidate may spend from nomination to the declaration of results. Rs 40 lakh for an assembly seat in large states, Rs 28 lakh in smaller ones; Rs 95 lakh and Rs 75 lakh for Lok Sabha. Digital spend counts. The expenditure observer can ask for the ad account's own report and compare it to the register. Keep them identical.
2. The silence: Section 126
For 48 hours before polling closes, campaigning stops. Section 126 names public meetings and television and similar apparatus; the Commission's instructions and the platforms' 2019 Voluntary Code extend the silence to paid political content on social media. Organic posting is contested ground; paid promotion is not. The switch-off is executed by a named person, to the minute, with a screenshot of each paused campaign. Scheduled posts are the classic mistake.
3. Pre-certification: the MCMC
Political advertisements on television and cable require pre-certification by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee at the district or state level, and the Commission has extended the requirement to political ads on social media platforms. The certificate number travels with the creative. A pre-certified ad that is edited is an uncertified ad.
4. Declared handles
Candidates declare their social media accounts at nomination. Content on those accounts, and paid promotion of it, is attributable to the candidate and chargeable to the candidate's expenditure. Content on an undeclared page that praises the candidate is where the next rule begins.
5. Surrogate advertising
The meme page with 2 lakh followers that happens to post the candidate's best lines. The "citizens' forum" that runs attack ads. The influencer paid in kind. The Commission has named the practice, platforms have been asked to act on it, and the trail, payments, admin logs, ad library entries, is not as invisible as its operators believe. A campaign that cannot explain who paid for a page should not be near it.
6. Platform verification
Google and Meta require advertiser verification for election and political ads in India, label them with a "Paid for by" disclaimer, and publish the spend in public ad libraries. The account should be owned by the candidate or the party entity with the agency added as a manager, never the other way round, because the library is public, the observer reads it too, and an account in an agency's name is a problem that lands on the candidate.
7. WhatsApp
The channel every campaign runs on and the one most often run wrongly. Two rules, and both are Meta's, not the Commission's. First, the WhatsApp Business policy prohibits political parties, politicians, candidates and campaigns, and firms offering political campaign services, from using the WhatsApp Business Platform at all. There is no "official API with consent" route for a campaign; a vendor offering one is offering a number that will be shut. Second, bulk unsolicited messaging from ordinary numbers through unofficial tools gets those numbers banned, and the grievance list on them goes too. What remains is what WhatsApp was built for: a volunteer messaging people they know, one at a time. The constituency helpline belongs on a phone line, a missed-call number, SMS and a web form, feeding a CRM the campaign owns.
8. Deepfakes and synthetic media
The Commission has issued advisories against the use of AI-generated or manipulated content that misrepresents opponents, and the Information Technology Rules require intermediaries to act on it. The practical rule is simpler than the legal one: if it would embarrass the candidate on a front page, it does not go out from a back room.
9. Data
Public election data, Form 20, the published roll, is public. Scraped rolls with phone numbers, bought databases and any list a voter did not consent to are not, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act has made the distinction sharper. Build on the public data and the opt-in line. Nothing else is worth the exposure.
The three breaches that actually happen
Not the dramatic ones. The dull ones. A scheduled Instagram promotion that runs into the 48-hour window because nobody turned the scheduler off. A Meta ad account verified in a volunteer's name, with the spend in the public library under that name and nothing in the register. A WhatsApp broadcast from a Rs 999 bulk tool that gets the campaign number banned in week three, taking the grievance list with it. None of these needs a lawyer to prevent. They need a named person, a checklist and a weekly reconciliation.
The weekly reconciliation
Every Friday, three columns. What the Google and Meta ad libraries show as spent under the verified name. What the expenditure register says was spent on digital. What the agency invoiced. The three numbers match or the campaign stops and finds out why. Ten minutes a week in month one is a day of panic avoided in the last week, when the observer's letter arrives and the register has to explain itself.
Who owns the rulebook in a campaign
One person. Not the candidate, who has no time, and not the agency, which has an interest in spending. A compliance owner who holds the declared-handle list, the verification logins, the certificate numbers, the consent log and the switch-off calendar, and who reconciles platform reports to the register every Friday. In a consultancy this is a role. In a candidate-run campaign it is usually nobody, which is how the observer's notice arrives.
What a compliance file looks like
One folder. The declared-handle list. Verification screenshots for every ad account. Every creative with its certificate number. The platform spend reports, reconciled to the expenditure register, weekly. Consent logs for the helpline and SMS. The 48-hour switch-off record. The observer sees a campaign that was counted. Apex builds this file as part of any engagement; the scope and the refusals are on the political consulting page.
Frequently asked questions
Do political ads on Facebook and Google need Election Commission approval in India?
Yes. Political advertisements on social media require pre-certification by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee, and the platforms additionally require advertiser verification and publish the spend in public ad libraries.
Can a campaign post on social media in the last 48 hours?
Paid political content is covered by the Section 126 silence period; the Commission has directed that it stop 48 hours before polling. Scheduled paid posts are the most common breach.
Can a political campaign use the WhatsApp Business API?
No. Meta's WhatsApp Business policy prohibits political parties, politicians, candidates, campaigns and firms offering campaign services from the WhatsApp Business Platform, and bulk tools on ordinary numbers get banned. Build the helpline on phone, SMS and web forms into a CRM instead.
Does digital spend count toward the candidate limit?
Yes. Paid digital promotion attributable to the candidate counts against the Section 77 ceiling, and the observer can compare the platform's own report to the register.