New Delhi: The country’s first voter, Master Shyam Sharan Negi, has passed away. He breathed his last at his home in Kalpa, in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district, late on Thursday night. Kinnaur District Collector Abid Hussain confirmed the death of Master Negi. Negi was 106 years old at the time of his death.

He was the first to cast his vote in the elections held for the first time in the country.

Reports say that Master Negi’s health has been getting worse over the past few days. This is why Master Negi voted through ballot papers for the Himachal Assembly elections on November 2. Master Shyam Saran Negi, the first voter, had a slashed eyesight along with pain in his ears. On November 2, he voted for the 34th time of his life.

Today the administration will observe his last rites with dignity. Shyam Sharan Negi’s son CP Negi said his father had been ill for a long time and died around 3am late in the night and he informed the administration.

After casting his vote on November 2, master Shyam Saran Negi, the country’s first voter, had said that the country had got independence from the British and from the rule of kings. In this great festival of democracy, today every person has been given the freedom to choose the person who is developing the country and today I have cast my vote at home due to poor health.

The first Lok Sabha elections were held in the country in 1952. Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district was likely to experience heavy snowfall during the elections. So in Kinnaur, voting was held six months earlier in 1951 and Master Negi cast his first vote. Master Negi was born in 1917.