103-yr-old casts vote in Himachal panchayat polls

Shimla, Jan 17 : Braving extreme cold, Shyam Saran Negi – believed to be India’s oldest voter at 103 years of age, who also participated in the 1951-52 general election which was the country’s first – cast his ballot on Sunday at Kalpa in the high Himalayas in the first phase of Panchayati Raj polls in Himachal Pradesh.
“I have never missed an opportunity to vote and I am happy to vote in this election,” Negi said in Kalpa, some 275 kms from the state capital, after casting the vote.
He requested youth voters to always take part in the democratic exercise.
A staunch believer in democracy, the centenarian never fails to cast his vote in any election, be it Lok Sabha, Assembly or panchayat.
In 1951, Negi, a retired schoolteacher, was on an election duty and exercised his franchise in Chini constituency – later renamed Kinnaur.
At that time, voting in the snow-bound areas of the mountain state was held ahead of other places in the country.