Despite his aching knees, India’s first voter Shyam Saran Negi reached his polling booth in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur to exercise his vote in the Panchayat polls on Sunday.
Deputy Commissioner Hemraj Bairwa honoured Negi with a Kinnauri ‘topi’ and shawl. He was also given a warm welcome by laying a red carpet by the district administration.
Believed to the first voter in the 1952 General Election, Negi was born on July 1, 1917 and retired as a schoolteacher, as per official records.
Remembering how he became the country’s first voter, Negi said India’s first General Election was held in February 1952 but in tribal areas of the state, the voting took place five months in advance on October 23, 1951 due to fears of inclement weather rendering the exercise impossible during winter.
“I was a schoolteacher then and had been put on election duty. Due to it, I reached my polling booth at the Kalpa primary school in Kinnaur at 7 am to cast my vote. I was the first one to reach there and vote,” he had said.
Negi, who had made a special appearance in Hindi film ‘Sanam Re’, never misses casting his vote, be it Panchayat, Assembly or the Lok Sabha polls.
He was also appointed as the brand ambassador of Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign by the Election Commission of India.
For his initiative to vote in every election, the country’s first voter Negi was honoured during the Election Commission’s diamond jubilee celebration in 2010. Later, during 2014 General Elections, Google released a video featuring him for its ‘Pledge to Vote Campaign’.
