Media affected election outcome, say Congress, AAP

The media impacted the outcome of the general election and helped the BJP swing at least five six percent votes in its favour, the Congress and the AAP said Saturday.

"The media mattered in a way it had not in the past. The media helped the BJP swing at least five six percent votes, and reach a tally of 282 seats," Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav said at a talk show "Did media swing 2014 election results", arranged by the Foundation for Media Professionals.

Congress spoekesperson Deepak Amin alleged there was a fair amount of consolidation of business houses in the media today.

"A lot of big business houses are having stakes in media houses and their political preference is apparent in coverage of news," Amin said.

Yadav said self-regulation has completely failed in the case of media.

"The Election Commission failed in regulating paid news," he said.

Rajkumar Jha, a rural communications consultant who managed the Gujarat tourism advertisement campaign, said the media has the compulsion of sensationalizing news at times when nothing newsworthy was happening.