Dharamsala:
Independent India’s first voter Shyam Charan Negi (106), passes away. He committed suicide yesterday in his native Kalba in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
Negi cast his first general election vote on October 25, 1951 at Kalba village, 10,000 feet above sea level.
Due to severe cold and snowfall in the then Mandi-Makasu Lok Sabha constituency comprising Kalpa village, the first general election was held early. Elsewhere in the country, voting was held in January and February 1952. Syam Charan Negi, then a school teacher, was the first to go to the Kalpa village polling station and register his vote. But he did not know then that his vote was India’s first vote. Since then there is nothing wrong with just voting.
It is noteworthy that in 2014, Election Commission of Himachal Pradesh announced Negi as Election Awareness Ambassador.