BNP drops mayors Mannan, Moni; picks Hasanuddin for Gazipur polls, Manju for Khulna

The BNP has nominated fresh candidates for the elections to Gaziour and Khulna city corporations, dropping the party aspirants who are currently mayors of the cities after winning the last polls.

Hasanuddin Sarker is the BNP candidate in Gazipur and Nazrul Islam Manju in Khulna.

The two former MPs will contest the May 15 election with the BNP’s paddy sheaf logo, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced after a meeting of the party policymakers on Monday.

“I hope we will get the people’s mandate like we did in the past,” he said, recalling the victories by huge margins of the BNP candidates in these two city corporations in 2013.

Gazipur Mayor MA Mannan and Khulna Mayor Moniruzzaman Moni also bought BNP nomination forms this time and the party’s nomination board interviewed them along with the other candidates on Sunday.

Asked why they dropped Mannan and Moni this time, Mirza Fakhrul said, “These are our internal affairs, but you should know that we’ve taken the decision considering the party’s interests.”

The BNP’s National Standing Committee discussed the nominations for a long time in the absence of their chief Khaleda Zia, who is in jail for corruption.

Neither Mannan nor Moni could be reached for comments.

Hasanuddin, once a Jatiya Party leader, is a member of the BNP’s Central Executive Committee and a vice-president of the party’s Gazipur district unit.

He is a former chairman of Tongi Municipality. He was an MP when the Jatiya Party was in power in the 80s.

Manju is President of Khulna Metropolitan BNP and organising secretary of the party’s Khulna division unit.

The Awami League said on Sunday it picked former Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Jahangir Alam, a fresher, for Gazipur, but kept faith in former mayor Talukder Abdul Khalek, who lost the last polls in Khulna city to the BNP’s Moni.