NANDED

At the time of India’s independence, the area that now forms Nanded district was part of the princely Hyderabad State, ruled by Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. In 1950, it was annexed into the Indian Union through the process of integration. Following the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, Hyderabad State was dissolved and its territories were divided between Andhra Pradesh and the Bombay State, with Nanded becoming part of the latter. Later, with the implementation of the Bombay Reorganisation Act in 1960, the Bombay State was further bifurcated into Gujarat and Maharashtra. It was during this reorganisation that the Nanded region was officially included in the state of Maharashtra.

The Nanded District includes the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency, which comprises 6 Vidhan Sabha segments: Bhokar, Nanded North, Nanded South, Naigaon, Deglur, and Mukhed. Along with this, the district includes some Vidhan Sabha segments of Latur and Hingoli Lok Sabha constituency, i.e, Loha (Latur), Hadgaon (Hingoli), and Kinwat (Hingoli).

Within the Vidhan Parishad, the Nanded District is represented by the Nanded Local Bodies Authorities Constituency, the Aurangabad Teachers’ Constituency, and the Aurangabad Graduates Constituency. The Graduates and Teachers’ Constituencies are based on the administrative divisions of Maharashtra. The current chapter will focus primarily on the Nanded Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha segments that comprise it. For the other Vidhan Sabha segments that fall in the district, please refer to the Politics chapter of Hingoli and Latur.

The given maps provide an overview of the boundaries of the Nanded district and the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha Constituencies that fall within and around it.

Based on records from the delimitation reports by the Election Commission, it is evident that there have been significant changes to the Vidhan Sabha constituencies within the Nanded district over the years. Particularly noteworthy are the reshuffling of the Vidhan Sabha constituencies between the Nanded, Latur, and Hingoli Lok Sabha constituencies. The current structure of the Nanded Lok Sabha Constituency is based on the latest delimitation of parliamentary constituencies done in 2008. The given chart provides an overview of the changes that have occurred in the Nanded Lok Sabha Constituency and its Vidhan Sabha segments after every delimitation exercise.

The following is the current Member of Parliament (MP) representing Nanded district in the Lok Sabha, as of 2024:

The following are the current Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) representing constituencies in Nanded district, as of 2024:

Ashok Chavan, and Amit Gopchade, members of the BJP, nominated to the Rajya Sabha, belong to Nanded district.

The Guardian Minister of Nanded is Atul Save from the BJP.

The following table lists the current Members of the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad representing Nanded district through various constituencies, as of 2024:

The following are the key administrative heads of Nanded district, as of 2024:

There are 17 Urban Local Bodies in the Nanded District: 1 Mahanagar Palika, 12 Nagar Parishad, and 4 Nagar Panchayat. There are 1,310 Gram Panchayats and 16 Panchayat Samiti.

The Zilla Parishad of Nanded was established in 1962, alongside Maharashtra's formation. Shyamrao Kadam served as its first president for 10 years (1962-1970) – marking him as the ZP president with the longest tenure in Maharashtra. The ZP has implemented unique programs such as village cremation grounds, the Suno Neha App for hearing-impaired students, real-time work monitoring, a School Outside School for students with time constraints, the Miyawaki forest initiative, and "Stories of Saturday" to improve student reading comprehension.

With the recent Maharashtra administrative reshuffling in July 2023, Minal Karanwal has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Parishad. Alongside, Mangarani Ambulgekar (INC) is the President of the Parishad.

The Municipal Corporation in Nanded is the Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation (NWMC), which was established in 1997 by the merging of Municipal Councils of the districts, Nanded and Waghala. As of 2023, there are a total of 81 wards under NWMC. Over the years, the Corporation has seen Mayors primarily elected from the INC party – except the first Mayor who was from SHS (i.e, Sudhakar Pandhare).

The District Magistrate and the Collector of the Corporation are Abhijeet Raut. The last Mayor was Mohini Yavankar from the INC.

There are a total of 12 Municipal Councils (Nagar Parishads) in Nanded district. These urban local bodies are responsible for the governance and development of smaller towns in the district. The municipal councils in Nanded district are located in Hadgaon, Bhokar, Loha, Degloor, Mukhed, Kinwat, Peth Umri, Biloli, Kandhar, Dharmabad, Kundalwadi, and Mudkhed.

Nanded district has four Town Councils (Nagar Panchayats), which function as administrative bodies for smaller semi-urban areas. These are located in Naigaon, Ardhapur, Himayatnagar, and Mahoor.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, there were a total of 22 contestants from Nanded out of which two candidates had serious criminal cases against them. The elected Nanded MP, Vasantrao Balwantrao Chavan, has one criminal case registered against him.

In the 2019 Vidhan Sabha election, there were a total of 98 contestants from Nanded. Out of this, 27 candidates had criminal cases against them, with several having serious cases registered. From the six elected MLAs, two of them have serious criminal cases registered against them – Ashok Chavan (Bhokar, INC) has three cases, and Balaji Kalyankar (Nanded North, SHS) has two cases.

On 12 November 2021, Raza Academy (An Islamic Fundamentalist organization based in Maharashtra) organised protests in the districts of Nanded, Amravati, Yavatmal, Washim, and Nashik against the communal violence that had battered the state of Tripura in October. In Nanded, Amravati, and Malegaon (Nashik), these protests turned violent with protestors committing arson, pelting stones, injuring police officers, and damaging public property. The Nanded police arrested about 35 individuals who were allegedly involved in the incident.

On 28 and 29 May, 2022, a historic conference was held in Nanded – the Black Panther Party of the USA and the Dalit Panthers of India came together to discuss the challenges both groups face. This event took place during the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Dalit Panthers of India. The birth of the Dalit Panther movement in Nanded is intrinsically linked to the Jai Bhim Nagar slums, a settlement of the Dalit community that is more than 50 years old, which became the nucleus of the Dalit Panthers movement in Nanded.

A 22-year-old Buddhist youth was brutally lynched allegedly by a group of Maratha youth in Nanded’s Bondhar Haveli village on 1 June, 2023. Activists following the case suggested that the youth was attacked and stabbed to death out of spite for organising the first-ever Ambedkar Jayanti celebration in the village around a month ago. Six accused were booked by the Nanded Rural Police.

The Sikh community of Nanded protested in huge numbers in February 2024 against the amendments made by the state government to the Hazur Sahib board Act. The amendment enables the state government to nominate 12 members of the 17-member board that takes care of the Gurudwara.