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N'ganj, Magura polls debacle

BNP blames it on bad choice, infighting

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has put its Narayanganj and Magura municipal elections debacle down to wrong choice of candidates and intra-party squabbles.
BNP leaders blamed the party
leadership and cabinet ministers for completely ignoring organisational matters.
Senior BNP leaders said that the top ranking leaders of the party did not give any attention to the municipal polls, and they were not attaching due importance to the upcoming Union Parishad elections either.
"The persons who were given the responsibility of selecting candidates, that the ruling party would back, miserably failed to choose popular ones, and they nominated their 'own men'," observed a senior leader.
The leaders observed that the three-month long army drive also seriously affected the organisational activities of the party. Most of the active workers of the party at the grass- roots level were either harassed or arrested during the drive. A large number of field-level activists, who went on hiding, have not yet returned to their respective
areas.
Moreover, the price hike of essential commodities, particularly rice, potato, edible oil, onion and sugar, and the decision to increase the price of patrol have been a negative factor for the ruling party.
Criticising their own government, they said that instead of creating new employment opportunities, the government had started massive retrenchment from different sectors, which has been an unpopular move.
Indiscriminate arrests of opposition leaders and filing of cases against political opponents also affected the results of the polls.
An influential leader of the BNP said although the municipal polls were non-political, the defeats in Narayanganj and Magura embarrassed the party. " But that does not mean that the voters have shifted to the Awami League camp. The
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defeats are the result of in-house bickering," he said.
BNP sources said the party had worked out the reasons behind the defeats in Narayanganj and Magura municipal polls.
Another senior leader, while explaining the reasons behind the defeat in Narayanganj polls, said the person who was initially chosen to contest the polls withdrew his candidature at the last moment.
He said BRTC Chairman Taimur Alam Khandaker was asked to contest the Narayanganj municipal polls. Taimur also agreed to resign from the BRTC.
Party sources said that Taimur later told the party leaders that he withdrew after Communications Minister Nazmul Huda asked him not to resign from the BRTC, and refused to accept his resignation.
Then the BNP decided to back Nurul Islam Sardar. Sources said six other BNP men, who had submitted nomination papers, withdrew their candidatures at the instruction of the party high command.
BNP leaders said that despite being a weak candidate, Nurul Islam might have put up a better fight, but he did not get active support from other BNP aspirants.
About the Magura municipal polls, BNP leaders believe that the decision to support the wrong
candidate coupled with intra-party conflicts was responsible for the defeat.
They said local MP Kazi Salimul Haq Kamal influenced the selection of Abdul Gafur wholost the polls by 3,556 votes to the AL-backed candidate.
BNP sources said that its rebel candidate Iqbal Akhter Khan Kapur was previously a leader of the Jatiya Party. He joined the BNP before the last general elections at the invitation of Khaleda Zia, and the BNP chief assured him of nomination for the parliamentary election.
But Kapur, the former chairman of Magura municipality, who got 10,208 votes in the just concluded polls, was not given nomination for the parliamentary polls and was told that he would be the ruling party's candidate for the municipal polls.
But he was sidetracked once more, and he decided to enter the fray as a rebel candidate. Gafur and Kapur polled (together) 20,607 votes, while the AL candidate got 13,943 votes.
"It is clear that there were more than 20,000 BNP votes in Magura. But we were defeated owing to wrong selection of candidate and conflicts within the party. It is also clear that people have not shifted to the Awami League, despite the price hike, the army operation and some other wrong doings in the last 15 months of BNP rule," said a cabinet minister. The minister said the BNP
might lose in Sylhet City Corporation polls also
BNP sources said that Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman recently announced selection of Sylhet BNP president MA Haq as candidate for the upcoming Sylhet City Corporation polls.
The sources further said Saifur Rahman was asked to choose a candidate after consultation with local and central leaders, but he did not do so and unilaterally declared the nomination. Sources said Sylhet district BNP leader AFM Kamal, another aspirant for the election, was determined to contest the polls.
Similarly, there is more than one candidate in Barisal, and Whip of Jatiya Sangsad Mujibur Rahman Sarwar is pursuing nomination for himself.
The BNP sources believe that it will be very difficult for the party to win until the conflicts within it are removed.