India’s 1st voter keeps date with polls, gets red carpet welcome
SHIMLA: Shyam Saran Negi, 102, cast his vote for the 17th time on Sunday as officials of the election commission (EC) welcomed India’s first voter at a polling booth in a village in Himachal Pradesh during the last phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Kinnaur’s deputy commissioner Gopal Chand escorted Negi to the polling booth inside a primary school, which was built in 1890, in Kalpa village of the district.
Dressed in traditional Kinnauri attire, Negi was welcomed by officials as a band of traditional folk music played local tunes after he was brought to the polling booth in a special vehicle.
“I have voted for a strong nation,” Negi, who has voted in every Lok Sabha, assembly and panchayat elections, said after casting his ballot.
Negi was the first person to cast his vote in Independent India during the first election held in 1951 in the Chini assembly segment, which was later renamed as Kinnaur.
Born on July 1, 1917, Negi was then a teacher in a government school and was drafted for poll duty in the first election.
Negi has voted in 16 parliamentary and 13 assembly elections and two assembly elections so far.
He is among the 999 centenarian voters out of about 53 lakh electorate in Himachal Pradesh.
They include 377 male and 622 female voters. The highest number of centenarian voters — 293, including 111 males and 182 females — are in Kangra district. Lahaul Spiti district has only five such voters, including two males and three females, lowest in the state.
Four parliamentary constituencies — Mandi, Kangra, Shimla and Hamirpur — are voting in Himachal Pradesh in the seventh and the last phase of Lok Sabha election on Sunday in a high-stakes battle for both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.
The votes will be counted on Thursday.