ELECTION PETITION 415
candidate for the House of the People from the said Bombay City North Constituency. It was stated, inter alia, that if the voters wanted their candidate to be elected they should cast both their votes for the Respondent No. 1. The Respondent No. 1 stated further that the waste of one of the two votes did not in any way violate democracy because according to the Respondent No. 1 giving of a vote by the non-Scheduled Castes voters to a candidate for the seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes is itself against the interests of democracy of the Scheduled Caste voters. Then referring particularly to the Petitioner No. 1 the Respondent No. 1 stated in the said pamphlet that as the Petitioner No. 1 as a Scheduled Caste candidate, was according to the Respondent- entitled to contest both the seats, it was desirable that the Respondent No. 1 must take both the votes for himself and that all those who wanted to make United Front of Leftist nomination successful, should give both their votes to the ‘Engine’ (the symbol of the Party on whose ticket the Respondent No. 1 stood for election). A copy of the English translation of the said leaflet is annexed hereto and marked D.
- In a press statement published by the Respondent No.
2 in the Marathi Weekly in Bombay entitled Vividh Vritta, in its issue of the 30th December 1951 under the caption, ‘ Bombay City North Constituency Parliamentary Election Trap’, ‘Warning to the Voters’ the Respondent No. 2 warned the voters in this Constituency, where a reserved seat for the Scheduled Castes is provided, that a virtual trap to enable the two Scheduled Castes candidates to capture both the seats had been laid by the Petitioner No. 1, who beings to the Scheculed Castes. The Respondent No. 2 further stated in the said statement that in order to escape the trap, the voter should cast his votes as he himself wanted to without paying any heed to any party or pact and completely disregarding, what he conveys, “the influence of self seeking leaders.” He still further added that “that alone would be his duty”, meaning thereby that the voters should cast both their votes to a candidate other than the Petitioner No. 1 if they wanted to avoid the Petitioner No. 1, who belonged to Scheduled Caste being elected with the Respondent No. 5 who also belonged to the Scheduled Castes, and thereby the Scheduled Castes candidates carrying both the seats and