Dainik Jagran has officially denounced this claim. It has stated that publishing the exit poll was an unwitting lapse and the outcome of miscommunication between the departments of ad sales and edit. According to Jagran Group Chief Executive Officer and Editor Sanjay Gupta, the exit polls had come in the form of an advertisement. Generally, editorial content functions independent of marketing and sales, whose responsibility it is to secure ads. Even in the age of native advertising, there are usually separate teams to write that content. That said, there are organisations in which advertisements do dictate what will go on a page in terms of editorial, but Dainik Jagran maintains there is a divide between the two in its operating system. It has also said that there are standing instructions to the editorial staff to strictly follow the directives issued by the EC.