Independent India’s first voter, Shyam Saran Negi from Kalpa in Kinnaur district, filed a complaint with the Election Commission on Wednesday over using ‘Chowkidar’ with his name and sought action against a BJP worker for doing so without his permission.

In a social media post, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pushapraj added Chowkidar to Negi’s name seeking votes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Negi objected to the BJP leader’s tweet and said he had not given permission to anyone to use his name for political campaigns and had filed a complaint with district election officials.

In his letter to the district administration, Negi has said he never permitted anyone to use his name for political campaign, neither had he appealed to voters to vote in favour of any political party or leader.

“I don’t use social media and I haven’t allowed anyone to operate any social media account on my behalf. If anyone uses my name of picture for political purposes, action as per law should be taken against them,” he stated.

Negi further said in his letter that he had only allowed the district administration of Kinnaur to use his photograph for voter ’ awareness in the district and the state and he wasn’t using ‘Chowkidar’ with his name.

Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Gopal Chand said they had received a letter from Shyam Saran Negi in which he had reiterated his statement for not giving permission to anyone to use his name.

“We have forwarded the same along with screenshots of the alleged tweet to state Election department for taking necessary action,” he added.

As per the queries regarding using the name of Negi from Kalpa in Kinnaur district in a tweet with Chowkidar prefixed to it, the chief electoral officer has asked the Kinnaur DC to ask Negi as to whether he wanted any action as per the prevailing law (IT Act) against the person who used his name, said an election department official.

CEO Devesh Kumar has taken up the issue with the ECI apprising it of the content of the tweet and the complaint, and even screenshots have been mailed to the ECI (Social Media Cell) to take up the matter with Twitter, he added.

Negi, apart from being Independent India’s first voter, is among the 1,011 voters of Himachal Pradesh who are above the age of 100 years.

Negi, born on 1 January 1917, is a retired teacher and he has voted in all general elections after 1951. He will turn 103 in July this year.

Negi was 33 years old when he first voted for the Lok Sabha elections and he will now vote for 17th time as the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held on 19 May in the state.