Shyam Saran Negi: How Election Commission Discovered The First Voter Of Independent India
Ever since that day, Negi has lived on to vote in all elections. He firmly advocates the principles of democracy and urges everybody to cast their vote. Age is just a number and Negi who is set to turn 103-years-old this July is all pumped up to vote in the Lok Sabha elections 2019.
Shyam remained just another elderly voter until July 2007 when the Election Commission of India tracked the country’s first voter. Hindustan Times reported that Indian Administrative Service officer Manisha Nanda, now additional chief secretary (public works department) in Himachal Pradesh first learnt about Negi from the photo electoral roll.
Speaking to the newspaper, Nanda said that he was going through the photo electoral roll which had voters more than 90-years-old. Negi who was 92-years-old at that time caught Nanda’s attention and he asked election department officials to visit his house.
Considering harsh winters and early snowfall during the first parliamentary elections, it was decided that elections will be held in Kinnaur earlier on October 25, 1951 whereas, elections in other parts of the country were held in January and February 1952.
A 2003 batch IAS officer then posted as Kinnaur deputy commissioner M Sudha Devi went to meet Negi who was well-known among the villagers at Kalpa. Born on July 1, 1917, Negi worked as a teacher in a government school and was drafted for poll duty in the first election.
53-year-old Chander Prakash told HT that his father Shyam had requested the polling party to allow him to cast his vote and then move to the polling station where he was assigned duty. The concerned officer agreed and he became the country's first voter.
Nanda compared his experience of looking for the first voter with that of doing Ph.D. “We searched records and files for four months. The election commission also searched for records at its headquarters in New Delhi,” he said.
Negi has also been appointed as the brand ambassador of Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign by the Election Commission. Negi enjoys listening to the radio and still possesses a good vision.
In 2010, then Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla visited Shyam Saran Negi's village to honour him as part of the Election Commission's diamond jubilee celebrations.
The election department has a video of Mr Negi casting his vote in 2007, 2012 and 2017 Assembly and the 2009 and 2014 parliamentary elections.
Kalpa village is part of the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Kullu and Mandi and parts of Chamba and Shimla districts besides the tribal-dominated Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts.