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At 104, India’s first voter insists on walking to the poll booth
India’s first voter, Shyam Saran Singh Negi, despite his advanced age, has decided to walk to the poll booth instead of using a postal ballot; the centenarian has voted in all the polls
India’s first voter, 104-year-old Shyam Saran Singh Negi, the brand ambassador of the election commission has never missed a chance to cast his vote. This year too, the centenarian will cast his vote at the Kalpa booth in Kinnaur for the bypolls to Mandi parliamentary segment.
Negi, despite his advanced age, has decided to walk to the polling station instead of using a postal ballot. The option is available to all those above the age of 80, said chief electoral officer C Pal Rasu, adding that Negi will be given a rousing welcome at the Kapla booth.
Born on July 1, 1917 in Kalpa (then called Chinni) in Himachal Pradesh, Negi cast his first vote on October 25, 1951, in the first elections held in independent India. Negi has voted in every general election since then and is believed to be India’s oldest voter.
Negi lived in oblivion for 45 years till the Election Commission tracked him in July 2007 when Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Manisha Nanda first learnt about him from the photo electoral roll. M Sudha Devi, a 2003-batch IAS officer then posted as Kinnaur deputy commissioner, went to meet Negi, who was among the reputed village men in Kalpa. Negi told Devi that he was the first voter of Independent India and had never missed casting a vote in his entire life.
In 2010, the then chief election commissioner of India, Navin Chawla, visited Negi’s village to honour him as part of the Election Commission’s diamond jubilee celebrations.
Google India produced a public service announcement in 2014 in which Negi talked about his participation in Independent India’s first election and reminded viewers of the importance of voting. The video got more views than others launched under the same campaign featuring Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Diya Mirza and
The chief electoral officer of Himachal Pradesh said that 15.5 lakh voters could be polling in by-elections of three assembly segments and one parliamentary constituency in the state.
Lahaul-Spiti monastery to be the highest polling booth
Rasu said Tashigang Monastery in the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti district at a height of around 15,265 feet above sea level will be the world’s highest polling station for the bypolls scheduled on October 30 in Himachal Pradesh for the Mandi parliamentary constituency.
He said 55 people will be casting their vote in Tashigang monastery, polling station number 72. He said that polling booth 3 Adail ( 8,500 feet) would be the highest polling booth in the Jubbal-Kotkahi assembly byelection in Shimla district. Pambad (6,204 ft), polling station 67,w ill be the highest polling booth in the Arki assembly byelection and Agahar (2100 ft), will be highest polling station in Fatehpur assembly byelection in Kangra district
While Shaakti situated in The Great Himalayan National Park under the Banjar Assembly in Kullu district (Mandi LS) is the most far-flung polling station.
