Chief Election Commissioner Navin B. Chawla on Saturday met one of independent India's earliest voters who exercised his franchise even before the first general election of 1952.
The voter, Shyam Saran Negi (93), belongs to Kalpa village of tribal Kinnaur district.
Negi was one of the first to cast his vote in independent India's first election on October 23, 1951.
On asked how elections and voting had changed over the years, Negi reportedly said that earlier the polls used to be a big festival, but now the enthusiasm of walking to the booths had died.
The election to the Lok Sabha constituency in snowbound Kinnaur was held ahead of other places in the country. The elections in the rest of the country were conducted in January and February 1952.