ORDER :

B. Siva Sankara Rao, J.

1. One Sri Madiraju Venkata Ramana Raju filed this election petition under Sections 81 r/w 83, 100(1)(a) and (d) Clause (i) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 (for short 'the RP Act'), against eight (8) respondents on 26.04.2014 viz., (R.1)-Sri P. Ramachandra Reddy, (R.2)-Sri S.K. Venkatramana Reddy, (R.3)-Sri G. Ramesh Babu, (R.4)-Sri O. Altaf Basha, (R.5)-Sri S. Noushand, (R.6)-Sri C.S. Pavan Kumar Reddy, (R.7)-Sri A. Prameela and (R.8)-Sri K.S. Rama Rao. The Returning Officer-R8 was deleted from the array as per orders of this Court dated 08.08.2018 in I.A. No. 1 of 2018 for no necessity to implead the Returning Officer as party to the election petition.

1(a). All the respondent Nos. 1 to 7 supra and the election petitioner were the contested candidates for the election of the Punganur Assembly Constituency No. 284, held on 07.05.2014 viz., the election petitioner was fielded by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and 1st respondent to the election petition was fielded by Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leave about some of the others are even independent candidates. The election results that were declared on 16.05.2014 shows R.1-Sri P. Ramachandra Reddy got 1,04,587 votes and was declared as duly elected, for the petitioner Sri M.V. Ramana Raju could get 72,856 votes came in second and all other contesting candidates (R.2 to 7) lost their deposits.

2. The election petitioner challenges the election mainly on the ground that the Returning Officer-R.8 supra, instead of rejecting has improperly accepted the 2 sets of the nominations to the Assembly Constituency supra of the 1st respondent-Sri P. Ramachandra Reddy on 21.04.2014 despite written objections raised by the election petitioner-Sri M.V. Ramana Raju and said order of the Returning Officer rejecting the objections in accepting the 2 sets of the nominations of 1st respondent supra is contrary to the mandate in the conducting of elections covered by the Rules as well as guiding principles and instructions given to the Returning Officer by way of compendium instructions.

2(a). Prayer in the election petition thereby is as follows:

(a) To declare the election of Sri P. Ramachandra Reddy (R.1) to the 284-Punganur Assembly Constituency to be null and void and set aside the same,

(b) Further to declare that the election petitioner-Sri M.V. Ramana Raju has been duly elected as MLA of said 284-Punganur Assembly Constituency under Section 84 of the RP Act;

(c) To award costs of the petition; and

(d) Pass such other order or orders as deems fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.

3. As part of the election petition pleadings the Annexures I to XIII were referred and enclosed having been duly verified, which are marked with consent of both sides as Exs. A.1 to A.13.

4. The election petition was filed on 26.06.2014 though verified and signed on the previous day, Court stamp clearly speaks the filing on 26.06.2014 and the election petition was admitted on 08.10.2014 by ordering notice to the respondents. Originally one Sri V. Surendra Reddy was the advocate for the election petitioner at the time of filing the election petition and before trial there was change of advocate and the present advocate to the election petitioner is Sri M.P. Chandramouli from 29.03.2018.

5. The 1st respondent put forth his appearance as per summons in the election petition on 24.10.2014 and another vakalat filed on 15.10.2015 through his advocates Sri VRN Prashanth, R. Vivekananda and K. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy. For respondent No. 8-Returning Officer, learned Government Pleader for GAD filed vakalat on 18.12.2014. Now R.8 is deleted from the array, as per the recent order of this Court referred supra. Among respondent Nos. 2 to 7, only respondent No. 5 is appearing through his advocates Sri J. Sampath Kumar and J. Satyam and not others.

5(a). On 06.02.2015, even three months already expired before that to file counter of respondent No. 1 in the main petition, it was with