Home
+
Local leaders of the party refuse to cede support to the candidates with ‘boat’ symbol from the 14 Party Alliance
Published : 19 Dec 2023, 03:06 AM
There will be no easy ride on Awami League's 'boat' for heavyweights of the 14 Party Alliance, including Hasanul Haq Inu, Rashed Khan Menon and Anwar Hossain Manju. They face fierce battles in their attempt to return to parliament in the general election slated for Jan 7.
At least five of the six parliamentary seats left by the Awami League for its allies have the ruling party's leaders challenging them as independent candidates.
In most of the cases, the local Awami League activists support the independent candidates more than the candidates from the alliance.
This is the first time the alliance members are facing such a situation since they began to contest elections under the Awami League-led alliance in 2008.
In the Pirojpur-2 constituency, Manju of the Jatiya Party-JP always won the race on his own but this time he faces a tough challenge due to the reformed demarcation of constituencies.
Inu in Kushtia Sadar and Fazle Hossain Badsha in Rajshahi-2 seats bagged a significant number of votes once in the past elections on their own.Menon won the election in 1991 all by himself but could never test his popularity in the ballot without the Awami League’s support.
SEAT SQUABBLE AND MENON
Since the 2008 election, Menon won the Dhaka-8 seat with the Awami League’s election symbol ‘boat’.As the Awami League has chosen its own candidate for the seat this time, Menon has moved to Barishal, but amid uncertainty, he submitted nominations for Barishal-2 and Barishal-3.
On Dec 14, Menon was told initially that he would get Barishal-3 which Jatiya Patry’s Golam Kibria Tipu had won defeating Workers Party leader Sheikh Md Tipu Sultan.Later, Menon was given Barishal-2 amid a long discussion on whether the Jatiya Party leader would let it go in Barishal-3.
In 1991, Memon won the seat bagging 36,311 votes. But in 1996, the Jatiya Party’s Golam Farook Ovi sealed it.
The Awami League had nominated former MP Talukdar Md Yunus in the constituency and now he needed to withdraw.
“The local leaders and activists were cheerful as the party nominated Yunus but now they have lost the enthusiasm for election due to the change of contestant,” said Banaripara Upazila Awami League Office Secretary Imam Hossain.
For Menon, one challenge is to bring back Yunus supporters and the other is to confront Awami League leader Monirul Islam Badal, who won the ninth parliamentary polls in 2008 bagging 100,511 votes.
“To hold a participatory election, anyone can contest it. So, I am taking part in it,” Monirul said.
INU VS AWAMI LEAGUE
When the Awami League announced its nominations on Nov 26, JaSaD’s Inu was quite elated as no one from the ruling party was chosen to contest for the Kushtia-2 seat, the one he was vying for.
However, the local Awami League seemed to unite against Inu and support his opponent, an independent candidate..
The feud between the JaSaD and the Awami League in Kushtia has been evident for the past few years. Both parties confronted each other in the local elections and the feud sometimes led to clashes.
A faction of the local Awami League refused to accept Inu in the past three elections. This time the political course of the election was diverted as leaders were allowed to contest the election as independent candidates.
Mirpur Upazila Awami League leader Kamarul Arefin is running for the seat as an independent candidate and is backed by the local Awami League workers.
Kamarul announced that the Awami League leaders and activists would not ‘work for the JaSaD anymore.’
“Let the JaSaD leader run with the ‘boat’ symbol, but I’ll be there on the field as a people’s leader,” he said.
MANJU FACES OFF WITH HIS PROTÉGÉ
After joining the Jatiya Party, Anwar Hossain Manju became an MP for the first time from Pirojpur-1. He won the Pirojpur-2 seat quite smoothly in the following elections as a Jatiya Party candidate in 1991 and 1996 and as an independent candidate in 2001.
Despite being a candidate of the Awami League-led alliance, Manju continued using his party symbol ‘bicycle’ in the next elections.This time, however, the reality of the election situation pushed Manju to switch to the Awami League symbol ‘boat’.
While the Awami League candidate Kanailal Biswas withdrew from the race, Md Mohiuddin Moharaj, Pirojpur Awami League joint secretary, poses Manju a great challenge.
Mohiuddin is a former aide to Manju when the latter was a minister.The JP candidate in the municipality election in Bhandaria, Manju’s constituency, lost the poll by a large margin.
The JP was expected to win all of the local elections at that time but most of the local JP leaders threw their support behind Moharaj.
Another key challenge for Manju is the reformed demarcation of constituencies.Bhandaria, Kowkhali, and Indurkani were under Manju’s control but now Kowkhali and Indurkani were dropped from the constituency while Nesarabad union [former Swaroopkathi] was added to it. Manju did not work in Nesarabad earlier.
All units of the ruling party in Bhandaria, Kowkhali, and Nesarabad Upazilas were supporting Moharaj.
“We want to have a competitive general election and therefore, we took the side of the independent candidate. We want a free and fair election,” said Bhandaria Upazila Awami League General Secretary Mirajul Islam.
WHAT AWAITS BADSHAH?
Workers Party General Secretary Fazle Hossain Badshah in Rajshahi-2 constituency faced strong opposition from the beginning this time.
Awami League Presidium Member Mayor AHM Khairuzzman Liton pressured the party for a direct candidate.
Finally, the ruling party allocated the election symbol to Badsha for the fourth time while Rajshahi Metropolitan Awami League President Mohammad Ali Kamal had to leave the election race.
As the nomination of Rajshahi Metropolitan Awami League Vice President Shafiqur Rahman was revoked, Badsha does not face a big challenge for the time being.
They would not defy the party high-command decision, said Dablu Sarkar, general secretary of Rajshahi Metropolitan Awami League.
Awami League leader Shafiqur, however, appealed to the High Court to get his candidacy restored. “The leaders and activists of the Awami League and its affiliates will support me when I have my candidacy restored,” he said.
The Awami League leaders and activists grew so distant from Badsha that some of them said they would rather support JaSoD’s Abdullah Al Masud Shiblee or Jatiya Party’s Saiful Islam Swapan if Shafiqur’s candidacy wasn’t restored.
