With assembly elections to the some key states round the corner, Hindi general entertainment channel Sahara TV plans to provide comprehensive election coverage to its viewers. Branded as Chunav Sangram the programme will be a run-up to the elections followed by 24-hour live telecast on 24 February, 2002.

Elections are being held in the key states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as well as the new state of Uttaranchal (which was carved out of UP) and the northeastern state of Manipur. The time schedule of Chunav Sangram is as follows:

4 February to 23 February, 2002 – 7 pm to 8 pm. 24 February, 2002 onwards – live non-stop coverage from 8 am on.

Starting 4 February, Sahara TV will air an hour-long election analysis programme anchored by Vinod Dua and eminent psephologist Ashok Lahiri. To make a strong impact with these discussions, Sahara TV has roped in names like Ashwini Minna, Mahesh Bhatt, Tarun Tejpal, JS Malhotra, Vivek Bharati, Shankarsan Thakur and Purshottam Agarwal who will form an exclusive panel of analysts. Besides these, the programme will also have senior politicians joining the studio discussions from time to time.

The election special programme will take off with a benchmark projection poll indicating the likely positions of the parties in the forthcoming elections followed by a series of election related daily opinion polls.

The hour-long Chunav Sangram will also include an interesting segment offering on-the-spot election related investigative stories by Nalini Singh highlighting issues like corruption, misuse of official machinery, use of guns, nepotism etc…

Commenting on this initiative, Priya Raj, V-P (publicity, promotion & PR), Sahara TV said: "The election special programme Chunav Sangram reiterates Sahara TV’s commitment towards providing up-to-date and quality news coverage to our viewers. Chunav Sangram is a unique value added information package in today’s clutter of news. Our focus on precision and quality achieved with the help of the state-of-art technology, a large team of newsmen and leading experts with our own inimitable Vinod Dua - will help viewers make sense of the current political scenario helping them to make an informed decision during the forthcoming elections.

Sahara TV has made arrangements to provide 24-hour live telecast of these elections on 24 February involving 400 newsmen. Beginning from 8 am the programme will analyse the results in four states.

Sahara TV’s studios in Noida, New Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Dehradun and Imphal will be providing the necessary live inputs. Sahara TV will use its online VSAT connectivity to receive up-to-date election news from UP (Meerut, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Bareily, Lucknow); Punjab (Chandigarh, Bhatinda, Amritsar, patiala), Uttaranchal (Dehradun, Nainital), Imphal and Delhi City Centre for the election coverage.