Hindi daily Dainik Jagran has landed in a soup, with the Election Commission (EC) ordering the filing of an FIR against the newspaper because it published an exit poll after phase 1 of the UP elections, something the poll panel had expressly forbidden. The FIR is also expected to name an advertisement agency, in conjunction with whom the Hindi daily published the exit polls.
The EC has, in a letter to the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh, said it had been informed that "the Dainik Jagran newspaper has published result of exit polls conducted by a company by the name of Resource Development International (I) Pvt Ltd on the first phase of elections in UP, through their website."
It told the UP CEO that the act was an "offence under Section 126A" of the Representation of the People (RP) Act and was "punishable by imprisonment for a term up to two years or with fine or both." The EC had, in a previous order, banned publication of opinion polls from 7 am of February 4 (when the five-state Assembly elections took off) to 5:30 pm on March 8 (when the elections will get over), and the publication of the exit polls violates the aforementioned section of the RP Act.
The EC, in the letter to the UP CEO, has also said: "The commission has directed that the district election officers of each of the districts covered under the first phase of poll shall immediately file FIR against the managing director and/or such other authorities of RDI and Dainik Jagran including the managing editor/editor in chief/editor/chief editor of the newspaper under Section 188 of IPC read with Section 126A and 126B of RP Act, 1951."
UP had seen a heartening 64 per cent turnout in phase 1 in which the fate of more than 800 candidates across 73 constituencies have been sealed.
