By Yashasvi Anika Tandon
Mr Shyam Saran Negi (1917 – 2022, 105 years old) was independent India’s first voter.
He is the only Indian voter to have cast a record 34 votes.
Born in 1917, in Kalpa village, Kinnaur (Kalpa is 265 km from Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh), he was a teacher at Moorang school. Elections were to be held in the entire country, for the first time, in February 1952. As Kinnaur receives heavy snowfall during winters, it would be difficult to transport ballot boxes. The earlier system of voting was through the means of a ballot. The elections in Kalpa (then known as Chinni) would be held in September 1951 instead of 1952. Being a schoolteacher, Mr. Negi was assigned to poll duty, but not in the village he lived in.
On the day he had to cast his vote, Mr. Negi arrived at the booth early in the morning at around 6:15 a.m. When the polling party (the party that ensures discipline at a polling booth) arrived at his village, he requested them to let him cast his vote early as he had to catch a train to go for his election duty to another village. The officer responsible allowed him to do so. This is how Mr. Shyam Saran Negi became independent India’s first voter.
Surprisingly, Mr. Negi did not know about this. He only got to know in July 2007. At the time of the 2014 Central elections, a video was made by the Election Commission and Google to promote the ‘Pledge to Vote’ campaign.
This video featured Mr. Negi got the most views among all other videos launched to promote this campaign.
Mr. Negi cast his last vote during the recently concluded 2022 Himachal elections.
Since last month, EC has allowed all people aged 80 and above, and persons with disabilities of more than 40%, to vote with the help of postal ballots.
This was the first time that Mr. Negi used this option instead of going to the polling booth.