‘India’s first voter’ dies aged 105

Shyam Saran Negi, the man dubbed “India’s first voter” has died at the age of 105 in Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh, BBC reported on Sunday.

He was thought to be the first person to cast a vote in the general elections in 1951, the first electoral exercise held in India after its independence from British rule. The polling booth in his state had opened five months early in 1951 for the 1952 election to avoid heavy snow, BBC added.

Since then, he had cast a vote in every general and state election, with his 34th – and the final – vote in the Himachal Pradesh assembly polls through postal ballot on November 2, said The Wire

In 2014, Mr Negi was made a brand ambassador for the Election Commission of India in a bid to encourage voting and starred in a Google video encouraging people to vote in the year’s general election, according to BBC.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur have condoled Mr Negi’s death.