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Battle of Barisal in Mohammadpur

Wasim Bin Habib and Naimul Alam Nobin
TVvo youth leaders from Barisal seem to be leading in the race for Dhaka-13 where the image and electoral symbol of the party they belong to could set them apart.
Awami League (AL)-led grand alliance candidate and chairman of the AL's youth front Awami Jubo League Jahangir Kabir Nanak and BNP-led four-party alliance nominee and General Secretary of BNP's youth wing Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal Syed Moazzem Hossain Alai seem to be ahead of the other five candidates in the race.
Alai was elected lawmaker from Barisal-2 in the last parliamentary elections. Nanak is running for the first time to become an MP.
The Dhaka-13 constituency, Mohammadpur and Adabar, was earlier a part of Dhaka-9 where BNP leader Khandaker Mahbub Uddin Ahmed was
elected in 2001.
Alai with electoral symbol sheaf of paddy and Nanak with boat will be battling to get the most of the 2,83,142 votes in the constituency, locals feel. Bangladesh Kalyan Party Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim is also contesting with the wrist watch electoral symbol.
Talking to The Daily Star many voters of the area said the candidates of the major two alliances are not locals and for that the party symbols could be a major factor.
Muniruzzaman Chowdhury, a resident of Shahjahan Road in Mohammadpur, concurred saying, "The main contest will be between Awami League and BNP candidates but as they are not locals, party's electoral symbol and image will elect the new MP in this seat."
Shahdat Hossain, a voter of Shekher Tak in the constituency, said, "It would have been better if the candidates were locals but since they are not, people may vote for the parties they like.
"Generally the country's voters vote symbols rather than candidates," he stated.
The area is home to a good number of Urdu-speaking people who became voters for the first time and both the leading candidates have
invested a lot to gain their votes. They have set up their own committees, comprised of Urdu-speaking people, for election campaigns in the area of the constituency known as Geneva Camp.
Sheikh Shamim Iqbal, a voter and a resident of Taj Mahal Road, said, "There are two Bihari camps [where the Urdu-speaking people live] and their votes will be a key factor in this year's election."
Saidul, a resident of Geneva Camp, said, "We have been made voters and we will be able to cast our votes this time. The living conditions in the camps are very unhygienic and we want the situa-
tion to improve.. We will vote the person who will be able to rehabilitate us."
There are two groups of people in the area, one wants to go back to Pakistan and did not become voters and the other group wants to live in Bangladesh and became voters, Urdu-speaking voters of the area said.
Nanak pledged to rehabilitate these people and Alai promised to improve their living conditions.
The major problems of the area are poor condition of roads, river erosion in Basila area and crime which both the candidates pledged to solve.