Feuds behind poor AL show: Amu

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu says dissidence and factional feuds have contributed to the Awami League’s poor show in the Upazila Parishad polls, specially in the first three phases

“We are responsible for our party’s poor show,” Amu told a party event at the Krishibid Institute, Bangladesh in Dhaka.

But AL General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam claimed the party had recovered much ground in the later phase of the Upazila polls.

At the end of its fourth phase, AL-backed candidates had won 177 but candidates backed by the BNP-led alliance had netted 183 chairmen posts.

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“We have not lost out in the polls, we have been undone by rebel candidates,” said Amu.

Ashraful Islam admitted that in the first few phases of the Upazila polls, the AL-backed candidates did not fare well. But he pointed out that his party had managed to close the gap substantially in the fourth phase of the polls.

Amu said there were less number of rebel candidates in third and fourth rounds of the polls – hence AL could improve its performance.

But in vote share, Ashraful Islam said, the Awami League was ahead with 51 percent against BNP’s 35 percent and Jamaat-e-Islami’s 13 percent.

He predicted that his party will bag more than 50 percent of the vote share after the next phases of the Upazila polls.

Syed Ashraf claimed that if a parliamentary election was to be held now, Awami League would win a two-third majority with ease.

But both Amu and Ashraf rubbished Opposition claims of rigging and intimidation by Awami league workers.

“If we lose, we are shamed and the media calls it a rout, but if we win, it is attributed to rigging and terror,” said Ashraf. “That’s how it goes.”