Indian police arrests news website editor for violating election norms

Indian police Tuesday arrested an editor of a news website for violating election norms by publishing an exit poll of the first phase of voting in northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Shekhar Tripathi, editor of jagran.com was arrested from his house after the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday directed poll officers of 15 districts of Uttar Pradesh to book editorial heads of the media group for publishing the exit poll.

The districts comprising of 73 elections constituencies went to polls on Saturday in the first phase of staggered seven-phase polling in the state. The remaining six phases are scheduled to be held between Feb. 15 and March 8.

"Tripathi was called for questioning on Monday night and subsequently arrested," a senior police official posted in Ghaziabad said.

Police officials have registered a case against the editorial board of the website and managing director of Resource Development International (RDI) - a consulting firm which actually carried out the exit poll survey - on the complaint of election commission officials.

Dainik Jagran had put the exit poll on its website immediately after the culmination of first phase.

However, on Monday the organization said its report on exit polls was inadvertently published on its English website and immediately removed.

"We clarify that we will fully comply with the directive which has been issued by the Election Commission of India and are in the process of filing a detailed fact-based response with the ECI clarifying the position," a statement issued by Jagran said.

ECI has put a ban on media houses from publishing or broadcasting exit polls so that the results portrayed should not influence voters in poll bound states.

Uttar Pradesh with a population of 200 million is the most populous state in India.

The local elections in Uttar Pradesh is seen as a referendum to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision of demonetisation - a step to ban high value currency notes. Modi's Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) won 71 seats from Uttar Pradesh during 2014 India's general election. Modi, who is basically from the western state of Gujarat, also managed to get elected from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi constituency.

Modi's radical move in November last year led to a cash shortage and was opposed by all opposition parties besides common people, who faced lot of hardships in banks.

Ahead of elections, regional Samajwadi Party which was ruling the state, forged an alliance with Congress Party to regain power for the second consecutive term.

Political analysts say BJP is facing competition from the alliance besides another regional player - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has following among the low-caste Dalits and some Muslims.

Counting of votes according to India's Election Commission would be carried out on March 11. Endit