The Election Commission of India has prohibited the conduct and publishing of any exit poll from 7 am of March 27 and 7.30 pm of April 29 by any form of media, in connection with ongoing General Elections to Legislative Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry and bye-elections to the House of the People and Legislative Assemblies of various states.
"Election Commission of India, in exercise of the powers under sub-section (1) of Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 has notified the period between 7:00 a.m on 27th March, 2021 (Saturday) and 7.30 PM on 29th April, 2021 (Thursday), as the period during which conducting any exit poll and publishing or publicizing the result of exit poll by means of the print or electronic media or in any other manner shall be prohibited in the ongoing General Elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry and Bye Elections to the House of the People and Legislative Assemblies of various states issued vide Commission's Press Note dated 26th February, 2021 and 16th March, 2021," read the release by the Election Commision.
Further, under Section 126(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, displaying any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey, in any electronic media, would be prohibited during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in the respective polling areas in each phase of the aforesaid General election and bye-elections.
"Any person who contravenes the provisions of this section shall be punishable withimprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both," the EC said.
On March 24, Election Commission announced the detailed schedule for the GeneralElections to the Legislative Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry. Similarly, Election Commission had announced the schedule for the bye-elections from 6-Malappuram Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala and 39-Kanniyakumari Parliamentary Constituency of Tamil Nadu.
On March 16, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the bye-elections from 23-Tirupati(SC) Parliamentary Constituency of Andhra Pradesh and 2-Belgaum Parliamentary Constituency of Karnataka, 125-Morva Hadaf (ST) Assembly Constituency of Gujarat, 13-Madhupur Assembly Constituency of Jharkhand, 47-Basavakalyan and 59- Maski (ST) Assembly Constituencies of Karnataka, 55-Damoh Assembly Constituency of Madhya Pradesh, 252-Pandharpur Assembly Constituency of Maharashtra, 26-Serchhip(ST) Assembly Constituency of Mizoram, 51-Noksen(ST) Assembly Constituency of Nagaland, llO-Pipili Assembly Constituency of Odisha, 179-Sahara, 24-Sujangarh (SC) and 175-Rajsamand Assembly Constituencies of Rajasthan, 87-Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly Constituency of Telangana and 49-Salt Assembly Constituency of Uttarakhand.
( With inputs from ANI )
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