briefly. A feature of the political practice in the United Kingdom, which repeatedly, colours and influences the English Cases, viz. the fact that there a person is often adopted as a candidate by a political association, without any move on his behalf, until a particular stage when the adoption is formalised by his consent.” 449. I am unable to see what baring the activities of opposition leaders and statements issued by them or Press Reports with regard to the candidature of the original respondent No.1 from the Rae Bareily constituency, had upon either an interpretation of her own statement of 2912-1970, or the date on which she made a final decision to stand as a candidate from the Rae Bareily constituency or the communication of that decision by her to her constituency. The material relied upon by the learned Judge consisted of speculation and hearsay coming from persons who were certainly interested in finding out which constituency the Prime Minister, who had a choice of Gurgaon a constituency much nearer to New Delhi and possibly of other constituencies as well if she only wanted to change it. Absence of proof of a desire to change the constituency is not proof of a positive “holding out”. It has been repeatedly laid down in decided cases on the point that what is relevant is not what other people think or say about what a possible candidate would do, but what the candidate concerned himself has said or done so as to amount to “a holding out” as a candidate by the candidate from a particular constituency. Mere speculation or rumour circulated by other persons interested in finding out the Prime Minister's constituency could only prove what their own expectations or beliefs were. This type of “evidence”, strictly speaking, could not even be admissible unless it could be related to something actually said or done by the candidate. All that such “evidence” could prove was that people interested were speculating or indulging in guesswork. It seems to me that the learned Judge did not take into consideration the tactics in the political game which to some extent, every party participating in such a game adopts. Some of those tactics are quite legitimate and honourable, but others are not. 450. The learned Judge referred to the contents of a speech made by the Prime Minister at Coimbatore in South India, in the early part of January, 1971, castigating one of the tactics of the opposition parties in choosing Shri Raj Narain to oppose her, for purposes of maximum “mud slinging”. The learned Judge pointed out that the Prime Minister admitted, in her evidence, that she could have said this in her speech at Coimbatore, She was not asked whether this amounted to holding herself out as a candidate from Rae Bareily constituency. If such a question had been asked, there is little doubt that she could have explained the statement by the context in which it was made, just as she had given the precise meaning of her statement of 29-121970 in the context in which it was made. Apparently, the context of the statement made in early January in Coimbatore was that the opposition parties had chosen a candidate, who, in the opinion of Prime Minister, possessed certain capacity for “mud slinging” which others did not have. The apparent object of what she mentioned in the speech was to expose tactics of