BNP frontrunner EA Chaudhury meets AL candidate Momen, brother Muhith at Sylhet home

BNP frontrunner for Sylhet-1 seat Enam Ahmed Chaudhury has met the Awami League candidate AK Abdul Momen and his brother AMA Muhith at the latter’s home in the north-eastern city.

Who will fight for ‘decisive’ Sylhet seat in December election?

The two candidates for the constituency agreed during the meeting on Thursday that the political harmony in the area should not be upset centring the election.

All the parties whose candidates won the seat consisted of Sylhet City and parts of Sadar Upazila also won the parliamentary elections in the past making it a ‘decisive VIP seat’.    

The candidates for the seat won by late speaker Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, late finance minister M Saifur Rahman and incumbent Finance Minister Muhith could be predicted long before the voting in the previous elections.

But both the Awami League-led Grand Alliance and the BNP’s coalitions had not been giving any clue to their nominees for the seat this time.

Finally, the Awami League has nominated Muhith’s brother Momen, a former permanent representative of Bangladesh to the UN, as the 85-year-old finance minister is retiring.

The BNP has also picked former MP Khandaker Abdul Malik’s son Khandaker Abdul Muktadir for the constituency.

Ex-secretary Enam Ahmed comes from an influential family in Sylhet with a lot of leverage in local politics.

His brother Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury was an adviser to the military-controlled caretaker government and their late brother Faruq Ahmed Choudhury was a former foreign secretary. The chief adviser to that caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is their brother-in-law.

A former chairman of the Privatisation Commission during the BNP-led government, he is a vice-chairman of the party now.

Enam Chowdhury went to Muhith’s home at Dhopadighirparh on Thursday morning and stayed there for around an hour.

Muhith treated Enam to sweets. Rival candidates Enam and Momen also exchanged greetings.

Both families are also related and that was why EA Chaudhury came over, according to Muhith’s relatives.

“I like the finance minister. So I’ve paid a courtesy call on him. I’ve informed him that I am contesting for the Sylhet-1 seat as the BNP candidate. He wished me the best,” Enam said.