Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Saturday left for Kalpa in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh to meet the bereaved family of Shyam Saran Negi’s, the “first voter of independent India” who passed away today at the age of 106.
CEC Kumar will attend Shyam Saran Negi Negi’s last rites. Negi had cast his vote through postal ballot on November 2 for next month’s assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh.
Negi cast his first vote in the country’s first general elections on October 23, 1951, in the Kalpa polling station. He cast his vote for the 34th time on November 2 this year which became his last.
Born in July 1917 in the tribal district of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh, Negi had been a state icon since 2014. He cast his vote 16 times in the Lok Sabha elections.
According to the Chief Electoral Office of Himachal, Negi, a teacher by profession, voted in every election since 1951 and has never missed an opportunity to vote.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Shyam Saran Negi’s demise and said he will inspire every citizen of the country, especially the youth to perform their duty of casting vote in the elections.