Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh): India's first voter, Shyam Sharan Negi, in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat said that he will keep voting till his last breath and will also vote in the Himachal elections and ensure his participation.
Master Shyam Sharan Negi also said that due to his ailing health, his grandson will cast vote in his place for the Panchayat elections in the state.
Negi said that even today, he feels proud of being India's first voter.
Negi, who also made a special appearance in Hindi film “Sanam Re”, said he never missed casting his vote ever since then whether it be a panchayat election or the Lok Sabha polls.
Red carpet laid for the country's first voter
The district administration had made arrangements to take the country's first voter from their residence to their polling booth on Sunday, for which a red carpet was laid for him.
The first voter of the country, Master Shyam Saran Negi, in this old age also uses his vote in every election, and also calls upon the youth to use their ballot.
Negi was the first person in independent India to cast his vote in an election due to which he was made the brand ambassador of the 2019 parliamentary polls.
Negi, a retired school teacher was born on July 1, 1917, as per his official records. The centenarian still vividly remembers how he became India’s first voter.
“India’s first election was held in February 1952, but the voting for remote, tribal areas in Himachal Pradesh was held five months in advance on October 23, 1951, owing to fears of inclement weather rendering the exercise impossible here during winter,” Negi said.
