(Image source from: Scoopnest.com)

The Election of Commission of India tracked down the first voter of Independent India ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

The 102-year-old Shyam Saran Negi is not only the first voter of India but also the oldest elector. Negi exercised his voting rights in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh in 1951 and became the first Indian to do so.

Since then Negi exercised his franchise in all the elections. In addition, he firmly advocates the principles of democracy and urges each and everyone to cast their vote.

Negi, who is set to turn 103-year-old this July once again proved age is just a number and is all geared up to vote in the Lok Sabha elections 2019.

Negi relishes listening to the radio and still possesses a good vision.

(Image Source: The Indian Express)

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Manisha Nanda, the Indian Administrative Service officer and currently additional chief secretary (public works department) in Himachal Pradesh first learned about Negi from the photo electoral roll.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Nanda said that he was going through the photo electoral roll which had voters more than 90-years-old. Negi who was 92-years-old at that time caught Nanda’s attention and he asked election department officials to visit his house.

Considering unpleasant winters and early snowfall during the first parliamentary elections, it was decided that elections will be held in Kinnaur earlier on October 25, 1951, whereas, elections in other parts of the country were held in January and February 1952.

A 2003 batch IAS officer then posted as Kinnaur deputy commissioner M Sudha Devi went to meet Negi who was well-known among the villagers at Kalpa.

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Born on July 1, 1917, Negi worked as a teacher in a government school and was drafted for poll duty in the first election.

The 53-year-old Chander Prakash told Hindustan Times that his father Shyam had requested the polling party to allow him to cast his vote and then move to the polling station where he was assigned duty. The concerned officer agreed and he became the country's first voter.

Nanda compared his experience of looking for the first voter with that of doing Ph.D. “We searched records and files for four months. The election commission also searched for records at its headquarters in New Delhi,” he said.

Negi has also been appointed as the brand ambassador of Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign by the Election Commission.

In 2010, then Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla visited Shyam Saran Negi's village to honor him as part of the Election Commission's diamond jubilee celebrations.

The election department has a video of Negi casting his vote in 2007, 2012 and 2017 Assembly and the 2009 and 2014 parliamentary elections.

Kalpa village is part of the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Kullu and Mandi and parts of Chamba and Shimla districts besides the tribal-dominated Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts.

By Sowmya Sangam