Apart from its campaign spearheaded by senior party leaders, the Opposition BJP is now banking on catchy advertisements in leading local newspapers to influence voters before the Assembly elections next week. BJP poll managers have started splashing cartoons, slogans and comparative charts in newspapers to highlight the failure of the Congress party.

An advertisement released to a leading regional newspaper even features a cartoon of Chief Minister N D Tiwari and state Congress chief Harish Rawat fighting in the garb of wrestlers. The campaign suggests that the common man has been suffering while the Congress ministers enjoyed at government expense.

Comparative price charts of essential commodities during the days of the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government and the present UPA rule have also been put to use. “It is a well thoughtout strategy to put out advertisements and coin slogans with the help of local artists,” BJP spokesperson Dr Devender Bhasin said.

Though late, the ruling Congress has finally come up with its own advertisements. It is now countering BJP’s campaign against price rise by listing the comparative prices of essential commodities in Uttarakhand in vis-a-vis the BJP-ruled states.