Indore: Krishnadas Vaishnav, a 105-year-old from Indore, is the oldest voter in Madhya Pradesh, who has been casting his vote in every single election after independence.
His fragile physic might not be the same as it used to be years ago but the zeal to be part of the democracy is intact in him.
Vaishnav, who retired from postal department in 1967, recounts that he has exercised his franchise in every election after independence.
The Indore native had the opportunity to meet eminent politicians including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Arjun Singh, Digvijaya Singh and LK Advani.
He has little idea about VVPAT machines, but he keeps abreast with the changes that have crept into elections. “In the past, we simply voted for parties but nowadays we need to assess the candidates and vote,” he says.
His family says that Vaishnav’s real age is 105 years but the voters’ list has registered his age as 103 erroneously. The family further said Vaishnav still likes doing daily life chores himself and also inspires others about the value of the vote.
His neighbours too feel pride in sharing the locality with the centenarian.
Claiming that people like Vaishnav inspire many to cast their vote, Indore collector and the District Returning Officer Nishant Varvade lauded the old man’s commitment towards democratic duty and claimed arrangements would be made to ferry such voters to polling booth as they are brand ambassadors of these elections.
(Inputs from Arun Trivedi, News18MP Indore)
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