# Nalanda District: Block, Anchal & Gram Panchayat List, MLAs

> Nalanda is a district in Patna Division, Bihar, with 20 blocks, 20 anchals (circles) and 249 gram panchayats (LGD code 209).
> Its population was 28.78 lakh in the 2011 Census, with a literacy rate of 64.4%.
> The district elects 9 MLAs to the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.

Source page: https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/  
Updated 18 October 2026 · Sources: LGD, Election Commission of India, Census 2011 and other open government data

## Key facts
- **Name:** Nalanda / नालंदा
- **Type:** District
- **LGD code:** 209
- **Division:** Patna Division
- **State:** Bihar
- **Gram Panchayats:** 249
- **Villages:** 990
- **Blocks:** 20
- **Anchals (Circles):** 20
- **Population (2011):** 28,77,653
- **Households:** 4,77,529
- **Literacy rate:** 64.4%
- **Sex ratio:** 922
- **Area:** 2,367.0 km²
- **Headquarters:** Bihar Sharif
- **Coordinates:** 25.2000° N, 85.5200° E
- **Census 2011 code:** 229
- **Wikidata:** Q77633
- **Schools:** 2,898
- **Bank Branches:** 149
- **Post Offices:** 433

## Blocks
- [Asthawan](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/asthawan/)
- [Ben](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/ben/)
- [Biharsharif](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/biharsharif/)
- [Bind](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/bind/)
- [Chandi](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/chandi/)
- [Ekangarsarai](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/ekangarsarai/)
- [Giriak](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/giriak/)
- [Harnaut](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/harnaut/)
- [Hilsa](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/hilsa/)
- [Islampur](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/islampur/)
- [Karai Parsurai](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/karai-parsurai/)
- [Katrisarai](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/katrisarai/)
- [Nagar Nausa](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/nagar-nausa/)
- [Noorsarai](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/noorsarai/)
- [Parbalpur](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/parbalpur/)
- [Rahui](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/rahui/)
- [Rajgir](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/rajgir/)
- [Sarmera](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/sarmera/)
- [Silao](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/silao/)
- [Tharthari](https://zoloth.com/bihar/nalanda/tharthari/)

## Frequently asked questions
### Which division is Nalanda District in?
Nalanda District is part of Patna Division.

### What is the headquarters of Nalanda District?
The headquarters of Nalanda District is Bihar Sharif.

### What is the population of Nalanda District?
The 2011 Census counted 28,77,653 people in Nalanda District, living in 4,77,529 households. About 84% of them lived in villages.

### How many gram panchayats are there in Nalanda District?
There are 249 gram panchayats in Nalanda District.

### How many villages are there in Nalanda District?
Nalanda District has 990 revenue villages.

### How many blocks are there in Nalanda District?
Nalanda District has 20 development blocks.

### How many anchals are there in Nalanda District?
Nalanda District has 20 anchals.

### How many assembly seats are there in Nalanda District?
Nalanda District has 7 assembly constituencies: Asthawan, Biharsharif, Rajgir, Islampur, Hilsa, Nalanda and Harnaut.

### Who are the MLAs of Nalanda District?
The MLAs for Nalanda District (2025 election) are Asthawan: Jitendra Kumar (Janata Dal (United)); Biharsharif: Dr. Sunil Kumar (Bharatiya Janata Party); Rajgir: Kaushal Kishore (Janata Dal (United)); Islampur: Ruhail Ranjan (Janata Dal (United)); Hilsa: Krishna Murari Sharan (Janata Dal (United)); Nalanda: Shrawon Kumar (Janata Dal (United)); Harnaut: Hari Narayan Singh (Janata Dal (United)).

### Which Lok Sabha constituency is Nalanda in?
Nalanda is in the Nalanda Lok Sabha constituency.

### Who is the MP of Nalanda?
The Member of Parliament for Nalanda is Kaushalendra Kumar (Janata Dal (United)), elected in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. They got 5,59,422 votes (48.9%) and won by 1,69,114 votes.

### What is the literacy rate of Nalanda District?
The literacy rate of Nalanda District was 64.4% in the 2011 Census (men 74.9%, women 53.1%), against the state average of 61.8%.

### What is the sex ratio of Nalanda District?
In the 2011 Census, Nalanda District had 922 females for every 1,000 males (state average 918).

### What is the area of Nalanda District?
Nalanda District covers about 2,367 sq km, which works out to about 1,216 people per sq km on its 2011 population.

### Which block of Nalanda District has the most gram panchayats?
Biharsharif block has the most gram panchayats (20).

### How many Mukhiyas in Nalanda District are women?
In the 2021 panchayat election, women won 127 of the 230 Mukhiya seats here (55%).

### How many candidates contested each Mukhiya seat in Nalanda District in 2021?
In the 2021 panchayat election, an average of 6.9 candidates contested each Mukhiya seat in Nalanda District. No Mukhiya seat was won unopposed.

### How do the panchayats of Nalanda perform in the Panchayat Advancement Index?
The gram panchayats of Nalanda average 56.4 out of 100 in PAI 2023-24, slightly ahead of the Bihar average of 51.9.

### How many banks and post offices are there in Nalanda District?
We list 149 bank branches and 433 post offices in Nalanda District.

### Which is the nearest airport to Nalanda District?
The nearest airport to the centre of Nalanda District is Jay Prakash Narayan Airport (PAT), about 61 km away as the crow flies. The next nearest is Gaya Airport (GAY), about 77 km away.

### How can I file a complaint with the Nalanda District administration?
File your complaint on Bihar Lok Shikayat Nivaran (lokshikayat.bihar.gov.in) or call helpline 1800 345 6284. It goes to the District Magistrate (DM) of Nalanda District and the department concerned, and you can track it online with the complaint number.

### Which districts are near Nalanda District?
Neighbouring districts of Nalanda District: Sheikhpura (34 km), Patna (43 km), Lakhisarai (57 km), Begusarai (66 km) and Gaya (72 km).

### What is the altitude of Nalanda District above sea level?
The gram panchayats of Nalanda District lie at an average of about 57 metres above sea level (SRTM terrain model).

### How much rainfall does Nalanda District get, and how hot does it get?
On 2001-2020 averages, the gram panchayats of Nalanda District get about 1,000 mm of rain a year, 84% of it between June and September. The hottest days reach about 48°C, while the coldest nights fall to about 1°C. (NASA POWER satellite-model estimates)

### How much farmland and tree cover is there around Nalanda District?
Around the gram panchayats of Nalanda District, the land is on average 86% cropland, 8% tree cover and 4% built-up land, going by ESA WorldCover 2021 satellite maps.

## Sources
- [Assembly constituency boundaries (post-2008 delimitation), datameet/maps](https://github.com/datameet/maps), CC BY 2.5 IN
- [Airports (OurAirports)](https://ourairports.com/data/), Public domain
- [Aspirational Districts and Aspirational Blocks Programmes](https://abp.championsofchange.gov.in/), Public government data
- [NASA POWER agro-climatology (long-term monthly normals)](https://power.larc.nasa.gov/), Public domain (NASA)
- [Zoloth curated tables (divisions, ODOP, schemes)](https://github.com/Zoloth-Technologies/my-panchayat-project), CC BY 4.0
- [Calculated by Zoloth from the sources cited alongside](https://github.com/Zoloth-Technologies/my-panchayat-project), CC BY 4.0
- [DIGIPIN national addressing grid, computed from the panchayat's reference point](https://www.indiapost.gov.in/vas/Pages/digipin.aspx), Open algorithm
- [SRTM 1-arc-second elevation (AWS Terrain Tiles, Skadi)](https://registry.opendata.aws/terrain-tiles/), Public domain (SRTM); see terrain-tiles attribution
- [Bank branches with IFSC/MICR (razorpay/ifsc-api)](https://github.com/razorpay/ifsc), MIT (public RBI data)
- [UP gram pradhan election results 2005–2021 (in-rolls/local_elections_up)](https://github.com/in-rolls/local_elections_up), MIT (compilation); public election results
- [ESA WorldCover 10 m land cover 2021 (v200)](https://esa-worldcover.org/), CC BY 4.0
- [Local Government Directory snapshot (planemad/india-local-government-directory)](https://github.com/planemad/india-local-government-directory), GODL-India
- [Lok Sabha 2024 constituency results](https://results.eci.gov.in/PcResultGenJune2024/), Public results
- [Government schemes (myScheme.gov.in)](https://www.myscheme.gov.in/), Public scheme information (dataset Apache-2.0)
- [National Family Health Survey 5 district fact sheets](http://rchiips.org/nfhs/), Public fact sheets
- [Panchayat Advancement Index, theme-wise gram panchayat scores](https://pai.gov.in/PS/Public/TW-GP.aspx), Public government data
- [Census of India 2011 Primary Census Abstract (district)](https://censusindia.gov.in/), Public
- [All-India post office and PIN directory with coordinates](https://data.gov.in/catalog/all-india-pincode-directory), GODL-India
- [National Panchayat Awards winners](https://panchayataward.gov.in/), Public government data
- [Railway stations (datameet/railways)](https://github.com/datameet/railways), CC0
- [UP SEC panchayat polling centres (in-rolls/up_polling_station_locations)](https://github.com/in-rolls/up_polling_station_locations), Public government data; compilation by in-rolls
- [Gram panchayat office-bearers report (PB-2 form)](https://panchayatiraj.up.nic.in/pblc_pg/Reports/PB2FormReport?ReportType=Filled&District=BALLIA), Public government report
- [UP Vidhan Sabha 2022 and Lok Sabha 2024 segment results](https://results.eci.gov.in/), Public results
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/), CC0
- [Village boundaries with Census 2001 codes (datameet/indian_village_boundaries)](https://github.com/datameet/indian_village_boundaries), ODbL 1.0
- [Hindi names of assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies (Hindi Wikipedia state lists)](https://hi.wikipedia.org/), CC BY-SA 4.0 (page text); the names themselves are facts
- [Hindi spellings derived from a place-name token dictionary (learnt from LGD and SEC names)](https://github.com/Zoloth-Technologies/my-panchayat-project), CC BY 4.0
- [Bihar panchayat general election 2021, Mukhiya and Sarpanch results (in-rolls/local_elections_bihar)](https://github.com/in-rolls/local_elections_bihar), MIT (compilation); public election results
- [UDISE+ Basic Details of Schools (school directory with locations), via India Data Portal](https://ckan.indiadataportal.com/dataset/udise/resource/457fddf1-982f-4c85-855d-5095578accc1), ODC-BY 1.0 (India Data Portal); underlying UDISE+ data is public government data
- [Bihar Vidhan Sabha 2025 results by constituency](https://results.eci.gov.in/ResultAcGenNov2025/), Public results (ECI); Wikipedia compilation CC BY-SA 4.0
- [Local Government Directory, current snapshot (ramSeraph/opendata daily mirror)](https://ramseraph.github.io/opendata/lgd/), GODL-India (mirror under Unlicense)
- [LGD village boundaries (ramSeraph/indian_admin_boundaries)](https://github.com/ramSeraph/indian_admin_boundaries/releases/tag/villages), CC0 1.0
- [Rajasthan panchayat general election 2026 (structure, schedule and results)](https://sec.rajasthan.gov.in/GramPanchayatDetails.aspx), Public government data
- [Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha 2023 results by constituency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Rajasthan_Legislative_Assembly_election), Public results (ECI); Wikipedia compilation CC BY-SA 4.0