By Sfoorti Mishra

New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS): Delhi's oldest voter - Bachan Singh - who made news when he voted at a polling booth in Sant Garh this year in the general election, died on Monday at the ripe old age of 111.

Singh was felicitated as the oldest voter by the chief electoral officer in Delhi during this year's general election in May. He was given an invitation and certificate to cast his vote by the Election Commission. Singh was widely feted by the media during the elections.

Singh had set an example for the youth to come out and vote. "If I can come out from my house and vote at the age of 111, why can't young people exercise their franchise?" he had said while casting his vote earlier this year. According to his family, he had always maintained that nobody should waste their right to vote.

Singh was born in pre-independent India in 1907, in Pind-Alawalpur in Gurdaspur, Punjab. He used to work as a carpenter and travelled to pre-independence Pakistan everyday (just a kilometre away from his home).

He had many memories of pre-independence and post-independence life in India. His family members shared one such memory with IANS.

"When the country was divided, he was at his shop and didn't know about partition. He narrowly escaped death while coming back home due to the violence that erupted at the time," said his elder son.