B.S. Patil, J.

1. Petitioner-V. Nagaraj has filed this election petition seeking a declaration that election result announced by the Returning Officer on 8-5-2013 declaring respondent-Sri Dinesh Gundu Rao as duly elected to the Gandhinagar Assembly Constituency to the State Legislative Assembly is null and void. In this petition, respondent has filed I.A. No. 6 of 2013 under Order 6, Rule 16 read with Section 151 of Civil Procedure Code, 1908 praying to strike off certain pleadings in the election petition as unnecessary, frivolous and vexatious. I.A. No. 7 of 2013 under Order 7, Rule 11(a) read with Section 151 of C.P.C. is filed praying for rejection of the election petition on the ground that it does not disclose any cause of action.

2. Question that falls for consideration is:

"Whether the respondent-applicant has made out any grounds for allowing these applications?"

3. Facts necessary for consideration of the applications briefly stated are as under:

4. Election to the State Legislative Assembly for 164-Gandhinagar Assembly Constituency was held on 5-5-2013. Petitioner contested from BSR (Congress), whereas the respondent contested as candidate from Indian National Congress. One BJP candidate amongst others was also in the fray. Election result was declared and respondent-Dinesh Gundu Rao won with 54,968 valid votes polled, defeating his nearest rival Sri P.C. Mohan of Bharatiya Janata Party who secured 32,361 votes. Petitioner with 10,875 votes lost the elections.

5. In the present election petition, petitioner has alleged that he is a social worker and has rendered yeoman service to the residents of Gandhinagar. Respondent being son of former Chief Minister of Karnataka - late Gundu Rao having political influence had nexus with underworld goondas and criminals apart from having nexus with Government officials. He was involved in misappropriation of public money. Cases registered against respondent in this regard were pending before jurisdictional Magistrate Court, Bangalore.

6. It is alleged in paragraph 3 of the election petition that with a view to come to power, he committed malpractices of all sorts. He filed illegal and baseless complaint against petitioner before Srirampura Police Station and got him arrested under the Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum Grabbers Act, 1985 but eventually the High Court of Karnataka, Bangalore, directed the police to remove his name from the rowdy list. Copy of the High Court order is produced at Annexure-B. The averments in paragraph 4 insofar as the alleged attempt made by the respondent to defame the petitioner is bereft of any material facts. In the rest of the paragraph, he has only stated that he contested from BRS Congress. Similarly in paragraph 5, he states about the symbol allotted to him, which has nothing to do with any allegations of corrupt practice, therefore they are unnecessary.

7. In paragraph 6 of the petition, petitioner has alleged that at the time of filing nomination, he had more than 15,000 followers. Realising the same, the respondent decided to commit malpractices in the election and began distributing money in all the booth areas with the help of underworld goondas and rowdies. Though the police seized the money, they did not take further action.

8. It is alleged in paragraph 7 that Gandhinagar Assembly Constituency had 232 voting booths. On completion of voting, all booth agents complained about defective electronic voting machines and their complaint about the same to concerned persons-in-charge of the booth was of no avail. It is further alleged in paragraph 8 of the petition that, after the completion of voting, on the same day, respondent made a statement that he would win the election with a margin of 20,000 votes. Petitioner entertaining doubt and suspicion about the free and fair election made inquiries and discovered from reliable sources that the respondent in coll