[6][7][8][9] Dainik Jagran was established in Jhansi,[10] a district town in United Provinces (later renamed Uttar Pradesh),[11] by Puranchand Gupta and first published in 1942.

[13][15] The Kanpur edition, run by Puranchand Gupta was covering four neighbouring districts from the city and had reached a limit where it could no longer increase its circulation in the regional market.

[13] The Emergency created a demand for critical journalism which the newspaper provided and enabled it to make inroads in Jagran's market share.

On the streets of Kanpur, fights broke out between men hired by the two newspapers who used weapons such as batons and improvised firearms against each other for control over offices, territory and distribution.

[19] In December 1995, Dainik Jagran published a story with the claim that Mayawati, the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, had an illegitimate 12-year-old daughter.

[20] Published at the bottom of the first page in a short two column section, the story included claims that her daughter was hidden away in New Delhi and was borne out of a former "love marriage", based on an interview with a disgruntled member of the party.

In addition, Mayawati maintained a public image that she had denied herself family and children to fulfill the objectives of the Self-Respect Movement which sought equality for lower castes.

[21] The story caused resentment among Dalits and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which mainly drew support from them described it as the latest example of a Brahmin dominated press and establishment's constant mudslinging against lower castes.

[28][29][30] The newspapers had a new generation of foreign educated heirs, generally sons or nephews of the older owners who unlike their predecessors took active interest in expansions, capital acquisition and partnerships.

[36] In 1998, the newspaper received a competitive boost when the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave an exclusive interview for it in midst of the Kargil War.

[13] In Patna, the capital of Bihar, the newspaper focused on crime stories and prioritised presenting the law and order situation in a negative light to its readers.

By 2006, the upper caste Chairman of Jagran Prakashan, Mahendra Mohan Gupta was vying for and received a Rajya Sabha nomination from the Samajwadi (Socialist) Party which was led by the backward-caste Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav who had also been an old adversary for the newspaper.

[30][b][c] On 8 July 2006, Dainik Jagran also launched its Siliguri edition, just two days after the Nathu La mountain pass was opened with the expectation that the city would become a major commercial centre.

Dainik Jagran adopted across the board cost cutting measures; the newspapers halved the number of pages and consolidated printing.

[51] In its pandemic reportage, the newspaper promoted conspiracy theories against Muslims and extensively publicised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh including through the publication of various articles authored by its senior leaders.

[52] The newspaper created a narrative that the government was well prepared and had brought the pandemic under control but simultaneously presented the idea that Muslims were intentionally spreading the virus which had led to the nation losing the "battle against coronavirus".

Muslims were dehumanised as the "nation's enemies" and depicted as uncivilised violent people who attacked healthcare professionals and violated lockdown measures.

[54] Dainik Jagran's coverage largely ignored and distracted from issues such as the mass exodus of migrant workers, low testing rates, the lack of PPE kits and ventilators in hospitals and general mismanagement by the government.

[54] During second wave of the pandemic, national news publishers such as Dainik Bhaskar, India Today magazine and Mojo Story, and international ones such as Reuters and BBC had published reports and images of mass burials on the banks of the river Ganga and bodies floating all across the river caused by people's inability to afford crematoriums that were severely overburdened from Coronavirus related deaths.

According to the news piece, Jagran had employed a five-man team who made finding after covering over a dozen villages along a 70 km stretch on the Ganga, which included the Phaphamau and Shringverpur ghats.

The story was highlighted by BJP politicians including the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and then followed by a series of reports from the newspaper between late May to early June that attempted to reinforce the same idea.

Independent journalist Prashant Singh conducted several interviews with pandits, pandas (household priests), gravediggers and other locals at the two ghats who all confirmed that while some burials had always occurred, they had never seen such a large scale increase in their numbers before the pandemic.

Alt News contacted reporters at Dainik Jagran's Prayaraj edition who refused to comment on the story but two of them confirmed that there was an unprecedented increase in the number of mass burials.

[61] Dainik Jagran was first named in a 2010 report to the Press Council of India as one of the newspapers publishing undisclosed paid news for celebrities, politicians and companies.

Several of the newspaper's own news reports were repurposed into government advertisements at a later date and presented as new stories, which according to media analyst Vineet Kumar brings into question the credibility of its general reportage as well.

[37] The newspaper has consistently espoused a nativist rhetoric of identity politics for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rāma at the site of Ram Janmabhoomi (transl.

[66] Dainik Jagran is accused of running smear campaigns against Indian mathematician and educationalist, Anand Kumar printing false news about his institution called Super 30.

[67] Dainik Jagran demonised and ran a smear campaign against activist Afreen Fatima when UP officials demolished her house, including claiming that she expressed her support for terrorist Afzal Guru.

[71] According to the lawsuit, the P. C. Gupta family controlled Jagran Prakashan is making unauthorised use of the trademark name and has laid a false claim of exclusive rights over it.

[60] The lawsuit was started by Madan Mohan Gupta backed by several other members of the family and they applied for an injunction seeking an interim restraining order over the use of the trademark name.