& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

’Dour’ Salahuddin indebted to court

Mollah's return lands AL's nomination in trouble

Wasim Bin Habib and Najmul Alam Nobin
The Awami League-led grand alliance is facing trouble in Dhaka-5 constituency as the High Court gave back AL leader Habibur Rahman Mollah his candidacy in the seat the alliance keeps for Jatiya Party (JP).
Leaders and activists of the alliance in the constituency have now divided into two groups following alliance candidate Syed Abu Hossain BablaofJPand Mollah.
The situation is, however, inspiring the BNP-led four-party alliance's leaders and activists working for Salahuddin Ahmed who is busy mending his bad image as "Dour Salahuddin" for running away while being chased by the residents of the area.
This kicked off a new electoral equation in the scat.
The AL leaders and activists are still con-
fused about for whom to campaign since there is no clear signal in this regard from the central command. Some of them are working for alliance candidate Babla while others for AL leader Mollah.
Meanwhile, many voters of the area told The Daily Star that none of the three candidates are "clean enough" and anticipated that a large number of "no votes" would be cast in the seat this time.
The BNP thinks that it might have a chance to win in the constituency as the grand alliance is now divided into rwo camps, but some party men said they are working against party nominee Salahuddin and did not even attend Chairperson Khaleda Zia's rally for him on Friday.
On May 5. 2006. thousands of residents of Shanir Akhra in Demra chased Salahuddin as an extreme outburst of anger and resentment at the existing acute crisis of water and electricity. Salahuddin ran away in the face of people's demonstration and later came to be mockingly called “Dour Salahuddin
The former lawmaker has served in jail for about two years over many charges including money laundering, arms cases and other criminal offences after the January 11 changeover.
Babla, who was the area's lawmaker during HM Ershad's regime, also faces allegations of criminal activities while supporters of Mollah, who is now behind bars facing many charges, is campaigningon his behalf with election symbol boat.
Dhaka-5 constituency presently consists of Demra. a part of Jatrabari and a part of Shyampur.
In the 2001 election, Salahuddin defeated AL’s Mollah securing 1,51,244 votes, which is 52.05 percent of the total votes cast while Mollah got 1,23,020 votes (42.34 percent) and Babla got 15,133 votes (5.20 percent).
The total votes in the seat this time is 3,61,823.
Md Malimudul Hasan, a resident of Bibir Bagicha of Jatrabari who is voting tor the first time, told The Daily Star that the area has various prob-lems but those are not addressed properly.
"I do not find anyone in the area lit for representing us in parliament. So. I think many people may choose to cast 'no vote'," he said.
EkramuI Haque Chowdhury a businessman of Jatrabari said Salahuddin, who is now trying to mend his bad image, might get some advantage as the grand alliance is divided into rwo camps as Mollah is now back in the poll race.
Meanwhile, JP leaders and activists think that their candidate has more chances to be elected as he is the official candidate of the grand alliance. They, however, want the confusion among party activists removed and AL candidate Mollah to be withdrawn.