LINGARAJA RATH, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioners are some of the electors of Panidem Gram Panchayat, sattenapalli Mandalam, Guntur District, and have come before this Court impugning the election to the office of sarpanch of the gram panchayat held on 27-6-1995 in which the respondent No. 6 is said to have received more votes than respondent No. 5 who polled the next highest. The basis for challenging the election is that even though all the four candidates who had filed nominations had withdrawn their candidature,yet the Election Officer, respondent No. 4, erroneously treated the respondents 5 and 6 to have survived the withdrawals since they had filed two valid nominations each and according to him the withdrawals by the respondents 5 and 6 related to only one of the nominations of each one of them, for which they were entitled to contest the election on the basis of other nominations. Mr. M. Chandrasekhara Rao, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioners, urges the approach of the election officer to be against the law inasmuch as the withdrawal of the candidates related to their candidature as a whole and not only in respect of a particular nomination papers.

( 2 ) IN pursuance of no

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