Jaipur, Dec 01: It is going to be Rajasthan's first elections when its stalwart leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat will not vote. The 79-year-old, who assumed the office of the vice-president last year, was also acutely missed by people during the fortnight-long electioneering in the state.

The Vice-President's press advisor K L Kochar told news agencies over phone that Shekhawat was not coming to Jaipur today when the voting takes place. ''He is not voting,'' Kochar said, confirming that he was not using the proxy method or the postal ballot either.

Thrice chief minister of Rajasthan, Shekhawat was a member of every legislative assembly right from 1952, barring the fifth house in early 1970s when he was a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh.

He won elections from virtually every corner of the state and had led the opposition for years before he left for Delhi to assume the gubernatorial post.

Bureau Report