Poll office cracks whip on paid news; notice to BSP candidate

A BSP candidate for the upcoming Assembly polls in Delhi has been issued a notice by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in a case involving allegations of use of paid news after a direction for the same from the state-level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee.
Eight cases of suspected paid news were discussed today by election officials here at the first meeting of the MCMC under the chairmanship of Chief Electoral Officer, Vijay Dev.
The panel, while issuing the notice to the BSP candidate for the RK Puram seat, Dheeraj Kumar Tokas, further decided that a similar course would be followed vis-a-vis allegations of paid news against certain contestants in the Uttam Nagar, Matia Mahal and Nangloi Jat constituencies.

Those issued notices would have 48 hours to respond to the same following which MCMC shall decide the matter on the basis of facts and circumstances on record.
The candidates likely to be issued notices are Mukesh Sharma (Congress) from Uttam Nagar, Mirza Javed Ali (Congress) from Matia Mahal and Md Saleem Saify (BSP) and Dr Bijender Singh (Congress) from Nangloi Jat constituency.
MCMC examined the cases on various grounds such as identical articles with photographs and headlines appearing in competing newspapers, news items stating that a candidate is getting wide support and would win from a particular constituency, small events involving a candidate being given exaggerated/repeated coverage, etc.

According to Election Commission guidelines, MCMC can decide cases on certification of advertisement in the electronic media and also examine allegations of paid news. It is also empowered to take up suo motu cognisance of suspected cases of paid news.
If MCMC concludes that a news story was paid for, then the cost for the same shall be included in the poll expenditure account of the candidate in whose favour it was featured.