Sultan Mansur defying Dr Kamal’s call to not take oath as MP

Sultan Mohammad Mansur Ahmed is set to rebel against Dr Kamal Hossain and go against the coalition decision to take oath as MP.

Elected from Moulvibazar-2 constituency in the Dec 30 parliamentary polls with the BNP’s ‘paddy sheaf’ symbol, he says he will take the oath “when the time is right”.

Jatiya Oikya Front chief Dr Kamal held a meeting with the alliance leaders, including BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, at his office in Dhaka’s Motijheel on Thursday after Sultan Mansur and Mukabbir Khan, who has won the Sylhet-2 seat, expressed interests to take the oath.

The two Gono Forum-nominated MPs elect have been “clearly” told by the party not to take the oath, Dr Kamal said after the meeting.

Asked for his reaction to the party decision, Sultan Mansur told bdnews24.com: “I haven’t heard what was discussed in the party as I was absent due to illness.”   

“But as the people elected me by casting their votes, I will take oath and I will do it at the right time,” he added.  

A former vice-president of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union or DUCSU and president of Bangladesh Chhatra League, Sultan Mansur had risen as high as to the position of organising secretary in the Awami League.

He went under the fold of Gono Forum chief Dr Kamal Hossain after he faced the wrath of the Awami League leadership for seeking reforms during the 2007-08 military-controlled caretaker government.

The Awami League has formed government for the third consecutive term after winning 258 constituencies while the Oikya Front secured eight.

The alliance rejected the results of the polls and said their candidates, who won the elections, would not take oath as MPs.