Pune: Meet this 63-year-old Congress worker who has voted first in consecutive 25 elections

Pune: Every time there’s an election announced, he gets up early in the morning and reaches the polling station almost an hour before the official timing given for voting to start… He always wants to be the ‘first person’ who has voted in his area… To your surprise, this gentleman has done this not once or twice but for 25 consecutive elections in the last 40 years.

Vitthal Mehta, the veteran Congress party worker from Khadakmal Aali area who also runs a motor driving school business, achieved this feat on Tuesday (December 1) when he voted for the graduate constituency elections. Mehta, reached the polling booth in Ghorpade School ground early in the morning and cast his vote.

Mehta told media persons that when he voted for the first time in his life when he was 21 years of age. At that time, out of curiosity, I had gone to the polling station early in the morning. He was impressed with the arrangements made by the election officials and decided to be the first person to cast a vote every time elections are held. Mehta has voted in all elections – civic, state assembly and general (loksabha) – in the last 40 years.

Mehta says, voting is our right and everybody should exercise it irrespective of the candidates and parties in the fray. “I get up at around 5am in the morning and complete my exercises. I reach the polling station by 7.30am. I explain my eagerness to vote to the election officials present at the booth and hence they also cooperate with me,” he says.

Mehta not only votes first; he also encourages other voters in his area to step out of their homes and exercise their right.