The Gazetteers Department

Public life in Buldhana has been enriched by newspapers which voice popular grievances of the people from time to time. There are at present eight periodicals in the district which purvey district news and national events and educate public opinion. Of these six are weeklies and two monthlies. Of the weeklies, the Yashwant Sandesh, Panchayat Raj and Awhan are published from Malkapur. Shetkari is published from Buldhana, Ninad from Khamgaon, Shiv Sandesh from Mehkar and Navsamaj from Shegaon. The two monthlies Sahakar Pragati and Gramdarshan are both published from Buldhana. All the periodicals are published in Marathi language. There is no English periodical published in the district. Besides these local periodicals, a number of English and Marathi newspapers published from Akola, Nagpur and Bombay find a wide circulation in the district. These include Nagpur Times, Tarun Bharat, Maharashtra, Hitawada, Jay Vidarbha (all published from Nagpur) and Times of India, Free Press Journal, Indian Express, Maharashtra Times, Maratha, Blitz, Navbharat Times and Loksatta (all published from Bombay) and Matrubhumi and Shivshakti (published from Akola).

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

Buldhana district is represented in the Loksabha by two Members of Parliament from the Buldhana and Khamgaon Constituencies. The strength of Members in the State Assembly elected from the district is 7.

During 1957 Mehkar constituency was a double member constituency with one of the two seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. This double member constituency was abolished in 1961 and the seat from janefal was declared as reserved for Scheduled Castes.

In 1971 General Elections the Assembly constituencies of Chikhli, Buldhana and Malkapur combined with Yawal, Raver and Edlabad from Jalgaon district together formed one Parliamentary constituency, viz., Buldhana and the remaining Assembly constituencies, viz., Jalamb, Khamgaon, Mehkar and Janefal combined with the Assembly constituencies of Washim and Gowardhan from Akola district formed another Parliamentary constituency called Khamgaon constituency.

During the 1971 Parliamentary election, out of 9,98,260 total electorates, 6,13,385 exercised the voting right, the percentage of votes being 61.44. In the case of Assembly elections of 1972, out of 6,59,530 total electorates, 4,38,339 voted, the percentage of votes being 66.46.

During 1972 General Elections for the State Assembly out of the seven seats in the district the Congress captured five seats, viz., Khamgaon, Chikhli, Buldhana, Mehkar and Lonar. Of the other two seats, Malkapur was won by the Jansangh and the Shegaon constituency was claimed by the Peasants and Workers Party.

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