With the Lok Sabha 2019 elections just around the corner, every political party of India is busy choosing their respective representatives and planning their various election campaigns with respect to the moral code, stated by the Election Commission (EC).
Now, we have seen people discussing about the number of voters, with respect to region, class and gender. But we never quite got to know that who voted first, in the democratic nation, which boasts to be one of the greatest in the world.
Shyam Saran Negi from the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, a 102 year old veteran happens to be the first voter. He is that proud individual who cast his vote in every panchayat and also Lok Sabha, assembly elections. He is all set to vote again in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
He exercised his fundamental right to vote in 1951, where he created history by being the first voter in Independent India. He voted in every elections of the country and is a significant representation of exercising your own right to choose the government of the nation.
We were not quite aware of him being the first ever voter until in 2007, when Election Commission tracked him down. This search was kind of conducted when then Indian Administrative Service officer Manisha Nanda first came to know about Negi from the photo electoral roll.
Nanda said she was very interested in Kinnaur being a snow-bound area which prompts early voting. She suddenly came across Negi, then 92 years old and immediately asked election department officers to visit him. Negi even told M Sudha Devi that he never missed to cast his vote in his entire life.
In 2012, Negi was felicitated by then chief election commissioner, Naveen Chawla. He was also appointed as the brand ambassador for Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participating Campaign. Even in 2014, Google made a video featuring our veteran voter for its ‘Pledge To Vote Campaign’. Now he is a VIP and attracts media glares whenever he goes out to vote.