In its order, the court had said "we are satisfied that the 'paper trail' is an indispensable requirement for free and fair elections". The issue of simultaneous polls, from rural bodies to Parliament, a pet project of the government, also came up. If you can't, then you can't have simultaneous polls." "We were not only contesting our political opponents, we were also fighting the media," BSP member Satish Mishra said. All those who spoke against the media demanded a ban on cross-media holdings and said media houses should not have a finger in any other business.

Source: The Telegraph March 22, 2017 22:07 UTC