Elections 2019: India’s first voter Shyam Saran Negi casts his vote

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Notwithstanding his failing vision and aching knees, India’s “first” voter Shyam Saran Negi on Sunday reached his polling booth in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district to exercise his franchise. The 102-year-old was given a warm welcome by election staff at the Kalpa booth in Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, which went to polls in the last and seventh phase of the general elections.

 

“A resident of Himachal Pradesh’s tribal district Kinnaur, Shyam Sharan Negi is India’s first voter and very important for the state election department,” Kinnaur District Election Officer Gopal Chand told PTI. Negi, a retired school teacher was born on July 1, 1917, as per his official records.

The centenarian still vividly remembers how he became India’s first voter. “India’s first election was held in February 1952, but the voting for remote, tribal areas in Himachal Pradesh was held five months in advance on October 23, 1951, owing to fears of inclement weather rendering the exercise impossible here during winter,” Negi said.

“I was a school teacher then and had been put on election duty. Due to it, I reached my polling booth at Kalpa primary school in Kinnaur at 7 am to cast my vote. I was the first one to reach there and cast my vote,” he said. “Later, I was told I was the first to cast my vote anywhere in the area,” he said with a glint in his eyes and added that he proceeded to join his election duty after voting.

Negi, who also made a special appearance in Hindi film “Sanam Re”, said he never missed casting his vote ever since then whether it be a panchayat election or the Lok Sabha polls. He on Saturday had appealed to people to elect “honest” candidates for all the four Lok Sabha seats in the state. “Elect honest and active candidates for your parliamentary seats instead of voting for particular parties,” Negi told PTI. “It’s my last wish to vote again. But I have got immobile legs and aching knees now, besides failing vision and hearing,” he had said.

The Shimla (SC), Hamirpur, Kangra and Mandi seats went to polls on Sunday along with 55 other Lok Sabha constituencies in the country.

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General Elections 2019: 102-Year-Old Who Voted In Independent India's 1st Polls Votes In Himachal

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A staunch believer in democracy, the 102-year-old never fails to cast his vote in any of the elections, be it Lok Sabha elections, assembly polls or the panchayat elections.

SHIMLA: 

Shyam Saran Negi, a 102-year-old voter who also participated in the  the country's first general elections in 1951, voted today in a picturesque hamlet in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh where voting is being held in four parliamentary seats. 

"I have never missed an opportunity to vote," Mr Negi told reporters in Kalpa, some 275 km from the state capital, Shimla.

A staunch believer in democracy, the 102-year-old never fails to cast his vote in any of the elections, be it Lok Sabha elections, assembly polls or the panchayat elections.

In 1951, Shyam Negi, a retired schoolteacher, was on an election duty and exercised his franchise in Chini constituency - later renamed Kinnaur.

At that time, polling in the snow-bound areas of the hill state was held ahead of other places in the country.

This time, he casts his vote for the 31st time. He has voted in 17 parliamentary elections and 14 assembly polls.

 

"In the 2007 Assembly polls, an election official got in touch with him for the first time and since then he is in limelight in every election," a state election official told IANS.

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