In the ongoing Assembly elections for five states, the Election Commission has so far issued 167 notices to candidates who allegedly paid for the publication of news in their favour in various media outlets.

The maximum number of 129 notices have been issued to candidates in Punjab, where polling was held on January 30.

Thirty eight notices have been issued to candidates in Uttar Pradesh, where the elections are being held in seven-phases. There had been no complaints about candidates resorting to paid news in Manipur and Uttarakhand, which went to polls on January 28 and 30 respectively.

Our Correspondent reports, a major chunk of complaints on paid news were against vernacular and regional publications.