71-year-old to cast his 'first' vote on June 1

Khalil Ansari was born on Jan 1, 1953, a year after the first Lok Sabha election was held in Independent India. The visually impaired 71-year-old - a resident of remote Badkhori village in Jharkhand's Sahibganj district, around 400km from Ranchi - has, however, never cast a vote in his lifetime. The septuagenarian bachelor is excitedly gearing up to exercise his franchise for the first time in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Rajmahal parliamentary constituency, which goes to polls on June 1 in the seventh phase.

Khalil's case was discovered by Jharkhand chief election officer K Ravi Kumar during a tour to Badkhori village. Kumar said there was no duplicity of Ansari's name in the voters' list, "indicating he wasn't enrolled anywhere in Jharkhand before".