Meet Shyam Saran Negi, the first and the oldest voter of India. Shyam Negi has turned 100 years old today. Shyam Saran Negi who lives in a small village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh was the first person to cast his vote in 1951 General Elections and has never missed an election since then.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, the Village is now making preparations to celebrate Negi’s 100th birth anniversary. In 2010 he was named as the brand ambassador for the poll campaign in the tribal region by the State Election Commission. “I still remember the day when I cast my vote for the first time. The country then and now – many things have changed,” Hindustan Times quoted Negi as saying.
His youngest son told the daily that 9 Buddhist monks have been called in from the local monastery to pray for the well-being of Negi who doesn’t keep well lately. “I have called nine lamas (Buddhist monks) from the local monastery to pray for my father’s good health as he doesn’t keep too well now. He can hardly walk as he has problems in his leg joints,” his son told HT.
Born on July 1, 1917, Negi a retired school teacher cast his first vote at the polling both in HP when people of some parts of Himachal Pradesh were allowed to vote five months ahead of the General Elections that were scheduled to be held in February 1952. In 2014 General Elections, Shyam Negi who has never missed an opportunity to vote cast his vote along with wife even when he was 97-years-old. The polling booth was set up in the same school he had retired from. In his lifetime, Negi has voted for 17 times till now.
Thanking the government for giving him the recognition of the first Indian voter, Negi hs urged people across the country to go out and vote.
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