When election officials visited the house of 105-year-old K. Marappa Gounder at Karupparayanpalayam near Coimbatore to hand out the consent form for postal voting, he humbly refused it.
On Tuesday, the centenarian walked to the Corporation Elementary School at Karupparayanpalayam, around 300 metres from his house, and cast his vote.
According to Mr. Gounder, this has been the practice for him in every election and the routine did not change this assembly election too.
“He informed election officials that he wanted to cast the vote at the polling station,” said his son M. Soundararaj.
According to Mr. Gounder, a farmer by occupation, he has cast votes in every election from 1952.
Mr. Gounder, who has seen political participation of iconic leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Kamaraj, was born on June 1, 1916 and his birth details were recorded by his parents on a palm leaf engraving.
The senior most voter at the polling station also got a special welcome as the presiding officer introduced him to the staff on election duty. Some of them got blessings from the centenarian before he left the polling station.
“Cast your votes for those who do good things to the society”, Mr. Gounder told journalists as his message to voters.
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