Candidates in Kashmir prefer Urdu dailies for poll ads

With Assembly elections in full swing, it is raining advertisements for vernacular dailies in Kashmir as candidates and political parties try to reach out to the maximum number of electorate in the remaining three phases of the polls.

A cursory look at the daily newspapers published from Srinagar shows that political parties are preferring Urdu language newspapers over English dailies for their advertisements in the print media.

A detailed analysis of the newspapers showed that the Urdu dailies are getting most of the election-related advertisements, which has helped some of these newspapers tide over the losses suffered during recent floods.

Kashmir Uzma, one of the leading Urdu dailies in the Valley, had 18 election-related advertisements in its Saturday edition while its parent daily, Greater Kashmir -- a leading English language daily -- had just four.

One of the biggest advertisements in Greater Kashmir was issued by Finance Minister and National Conference candidate from Chrar-e-Sharief Abdul Rahim Rather. He, however, used Urdu language for the advertisement in the English newspaper.