Shivraj Patil, seven time Member of Parliament from Latur was sworn in as Governor of Punjab on 22nd January, 2010.

Shivraj Vishwanath Patil,born October 12, 1935 is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Congress party. Previously he had been the Speaker of the 11th Lok Sabha and served the Manmohan Singh cabinet as the Union Minister of Home Affairs.

He has also served the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi cabinets as the defence minister during the 80′s. He resigned from the post of Home-Minister on November 30, 2008 following widespread criticism raised after terrorist attacks on Mumbai. He resigned taking the moral responsibility for the attacks.

Patil was born in 1935 in the village of Chakur in the Latur district. He attended Osmania University, Hyderabad, earning a graduation degree in Science and studied Law at Bombay University. During 1967-69, he was involved in local government (Latur Municipality).Patil belongs to the Lingayat community. He married Vijaya Patil in June 1963.

Between 1972-79, he was member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for two terms during which time he held various positions such as Chairman of Public Undtertakings Committee, Deputy Minister (Las & Judiciary, Irrigation, Protocol), Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and Speaker of the Assembly.In 1980, he got elected to the 7th Lok Sabha. By 1999 (13th Lok Sabha), he had won seven successive Lok Sabha elections in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Latur is an old town with Historical and Mythological background. The book “Ratnapur Mahatmya” has a detailed insight of city’s history. The city was known as various names in the past including Satyapur, Shreepur, Ratnapur, Lakshapur etc.
The city has many Monkery and ancient temples. The idol at “Keshavraj Temple” is considered to be self generated. A replica of the idol can be found in National Museum at Delhi. The idol is supposed to be more than 2000 years old. The temple is Hemadpanthi is style which gives an idea about the age of the current temple being more than 500 years old. The Jain Monkery in Latur is more than 700 years old. The SuratShahavali Mosque adjoining is built up by Aurangzeb. The Gramdaivat Siddheshwar has a history of more than 500 years. The temple was renovated in 1910. Some stone inscription at the temple says about the age of the temple.
The city also has historical background, with Satvahanas and Rashtrakutas having ruled over the city. It was also a part of Ashoka’s empire. King Amogha of Rashtrakutas used to proudly call him “Lattlurvasiya” (Citizen of Lattlur).
In 1670 AD, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had visited the city. In Peshva times, “Laturi coin” was part of the currency. Thus Latur played very important role in history at every time span; the Satavahanas, the Sakas, the Chalukyas, the Yadavas of Deogiri, the Delhi Sultans, the Bahamani rulers of South India, AdilShahi, the Mughals and the Princely State of Hyderabad.
Latur has always been famous for business and training. The old business community used to stay In old Latur, towards the north of Khadak Hanuman. Lad was main businessman community in earlier times. Other businessmen communities included Brahmin, Maratha, Yalam, Jains etc. Later Lad community had some trouble with Nizam dynasty so Marwadis were invited from Rajasthan for business. Since then Marwadis are ruling the business community in Latur.
Lokmanya Tilak visited Latur in 1891 and initiated a Ginning factory. Latur got a name of fame in National market with this factory. A Vegetable oil factory was also subsequently started in Latur by Dalda, which was first Vegetable oil factory in Asia.
Barshi Light Railway (BLR) was introduced in 1911 which improved the transportation to Latur. The population was also increasing with the increase in business activities. World War I saw a stiff increase in the cotton rates and Latur Market got a higher place in Global market.
Later with time, the cotton industry saw a decline and Grain market got a rise. Today Latur is well known for the grain market and oil industries.
Latur was earlier part of Gunjoti Tahsil but looking at the glory of Latur, it got the status of Tahsil by Nizam government. Later on 15th August 1982, Latur got the status of District place. Latur was connected to Mumbai and Hyderabad via BroadGauge lines in 2004.
Latur has always been a progressive city and the progress route has never come on a backfoot in entire lifetime of the city. And we wish the progress will never take a back seat.