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It comes barely four months after the Awami League reinstated his membership on condition that he will never break rules again
Published : 27 Apr 2023, 10:37 PM
Former mayor Zahangir Alam, who was sacked from the Awami League and Gazipur City Corporation, has filed nomination papers ahead of mayoral polls and expressed fears that he may be subjected to enforced disappearance.
The development comes barely four months after the Awami League reinstated his membership on condition that he will never beach party discipline again.
But on Thursday, he submitted the nomination papers as an independent candidate, although the ruling party picked Azmat Ullah Khan for the election.
Zahangir submitted nomination previously before the first polls to Gazipur after it had become a city corporation in 2013, going against the Awami League’s decision to back Azmat.
He allegedly went missing as he refused to step aside at the time. He reappeared before the vote and announced his support for Azmat, weeping while talking at a press conference.
His followers, however, remained silent before the vote, which was a key reason behind Azmat’s loss at that time, many Awami League workers believe.
Zahangir won the party’s nomination and the election in 2018 as his influence continued to grow in Gazipur.
The Awami League expelled him in November 2021 for the “breach of organisational discipline and working against party interests” after an audio of his comments spread in late September. The local government ministry suspended him as mayor.
A man, purportedly Zahangir, is heard making derogatory comments in the audio clip on the three million martyrs and Bangabandhu’s role in the war. Awami League activists filed at least two cases against him over the remarks.
Zahangir was at the centre of controversy as mayor on at least two previous occasions. Before the government-approved rapid tests for COVID-19 amid the pandemic, he brought 50,000 testing kits from China, saying that “lives, not rules, come first”.
He also announced the opening of mosques for prayers before the government ended a ban on gatherings at places of worship amid a coronavirus lockdown.
The High Court issued a contempt of court rule against Zahangir in a case over land ownership.
Speaking to the media after submitting his nomination papers on Thursday, Zahangir said he was running again to stand beside his mother Zayeda Khatun, who also filed the nomination papers.
Zahangir said Zayeda became a candidate in protest against the “wrong” he had faced after winning the 2018 polls. “As a son, I am ready to sacrifice my life for my mother.”
Dismissing that the allegations against him as untrue, he said he would not step aside this time.
“An elected mayor was forced out through false and flimsy allegations. I may be arrested or subjected to enforced disappearance after tomorrow, but I want to be cleared of false allegations. I’ll contest as an independent candidate.”
Azmat said he believed Zahangir would finally withdraw nomination. “Let’s see what happens after May 8 (the deadline for nomination withdrawal),” he said in reaction to Zahangir joining the race.
