( 1 ) THE petitioner and respondents Nos. 2 to 6 herein were candidates for election to the No. 39, Boorugupudi Assembly Constituency in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The poll was held on 11-9-1999. Of the seven contestants in the fray, the petitioner representing the Congress Party and the 1st respondent representing the Telugu Desam Party were the principal contestants.

( 2 ) THE poll was conducted by the conventional process i. e. , by ballots. The counting took place on 6-10-1999 and the results declared on 7-10-1999. The 1st respondent polled 49,930 votes as against 47,955 votes polled by the petitioner, and was declared elected. The other candidates (respondents Nos. 3 to 6) secured a small number of votes each.

( 3 ) HAVING lost the electoral contest to the 1st respondent and by a margin of 1975 votes, the petitioner contests the election by way of this Election Petition. The petitioner asserts that "as many as 5127 votes were rejected due to the ballot adopted by the Election Authority. " The petitioner seeks the following reliefs. (A) Invalidation of the election of the 1st respondent; (b) Direction to respondents Nos. 7 and 8 to conduct a repoll for the co