KUMARAYYA, J.

( 1 ) THIS is a special appeal against the order passed by the Election Tribunal, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh dismissing, with costs of respondent No. 1, the election petition No. 195 of 1962 on the file of the Said Tribunal.

( 2 ) THE appellant is an elector in Nadendla village. In the general election held on 19-2-1962 for return of a candidate from Phirangipuram constituency to the Legislative Assembly of the Andhra Pradesh State the only two contesting candidates found on the arena were respondent No. 1, Sri K. Brahmananda Reddy, and respondent No. 2, Sri Jagarlamudi Chandramouli. It was a contest close and keen. Respondent No. 1 contested on the ticket and program of the congress Organization and respondent No. 2 was a candidate set up by the Swatantra Party. Both of them had considerable influence over the constituency -- the former being the resident of Tubadu, one of the villages in the constituency and the latter being a member of the Kamma community which, it is said, had a stronghold in that area. Of the total votes polled, as many as 1,503 were rejected as invalid. The valid votes to the credit of the respondent No. 1 were 27,494 and those polled by respondent No. 2 were 26,991 thus showing a narrow margin of 503 votes between the two. The unsuccessful candidate, Respondent No. 2, did not choose to file any election petition. Instead, the appellant herein, a resident of Nadendla, a sympathizer of the Swatantra party, became the petitioner. He called in question the election of respondent No. 1 on several grounds. the sum and substance of his allegations is that the process of election in that constituency was permeated and polluted by an organized system of bribery and corrupt practices on an extensive scale practiced by or on behalf of respondent No. 1 with the natural result that the election of the said respondent, in no sense was a pure and free choice of the electors and therefore cannot be allowed to stand. To state in somewhat detail the petitioner contended that the 1st respondent abused his influence, official position and statutory powers for furthering his prospects of election. He was a minister in power holding the Finance Portfolio on the eve of election. His elder brother Sri Vengal Reddy, his own election agent, was then the President of Panchayat Samithi of Nadendla, most of the villages of which Samithi were included in the Phirangipuram constituency. The Executive Officer of the Samithi of i. e. , the Block Development Officer was R. Narisimha Reddy, a gazetted officer of the Andhra Pradesh government. He was directly under the administrative control of Sri Vengal Reddy. It is said that it was the 1st respondent who got him appointed to the said office, and it was he who was responsible for his continuance in office there even though after the expiry of 3 years the department of Agriculture from which his services were loaned had promoted him and recalled him to his parent department and further what is more significant his partisan activities in the said area had given rise to several complaints of the public, who made regular applications to the minister-in-charge for his transfer. All this was for a set purpose and with a definite motive to utilise his services for promoting and procuring his election. The Block Development Officer and the Panchayat Samiti President, it is said, severally and jointly corruptly used their statutory powers, the Governmental funds and funds of Nadendla to vote for the 1st respondent. They hatched a plan and carried it out by bribing in various ways the voters of Nadendla and Yedlapadu. They used for the purpose in those villages specially the amounts allotted for Village Housing Project Scheme sponsored by the Central Government. The Central Government had laid down certain principles governing the allotment, distribution and repayment of the loans under the scheme. The State Government had also made rules to implement the scheme as contemplated by th