The opposition BNP has finally stormed the citadel of the ruling Awami League through a decisive victory for its candidate at the Gazipur City Corporation mayoral ballot.

The BNP-supported MA Mannan clinched a resounding victory over the ruling Awami League-backed candidate in yesterday's peaceful election to Gazipur City Corporation.

With the support of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, Mannan's win by a wide margin shattered the AL's hope of making a come-

tary polls in Gazipur district since 1991.

At the 2008 national election, the AL secured all five seats in the district, defeating the opposition candidates by big margins. At the 1996 elections, the AL won all four seats.

The BNP had managed to win two seats in 1991 and one seat at the 2001 polls, while the AL won two and three seats in the two elections.

In the local bodies' polls, AL leaders have traditionally had a record of doing well. The polls performance record of Ajmat is also better than that his rival Mannan. Ajmat contested three

back after a humiliating defeat at the June 15 elections to the four city corporations of Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet.

The victory just a few months ahead of the next parliamentary election will boost the spirits of the opposition camp, observe political analysts.

The AL high command desperately tried to secure a win in Gazipur to revitalise its grassroots leaders and workers, who had been demoralised over the defeat of the AL-backed mayoral aspirants in the four city corporations.

The party had hoped to secure a victory at the Gazipur polls and give a strong response to the BNP.

And there was reason for such hope. AL candidates have done well in all parliamen-

consecutive polls to the Tongi municipality, which is now a major part of the city corporation, and was elected every time.

The situation in former Gazipur municipality, which is another major part of the city corporation, was almost the same.

Awami League leader AKM Mozammel Huq had served as mayor of the municipality for more than three decades before getting elected as a lawmaker from a Gazipur constituency in 2008.

The win in Gazipur yesterday brought Mannan back as a public representative after more than 20 years after he had been elected lawmaker in Gazipur Sadar constituency at

the 1991 parliamentary polls.

AL-backed Ajmat Ullah Khan, who won all three consecutive mayoral polls in Tongi municipality since 1995, has tasted his first defeat this time.

His defeat has added to the tally of the AL's failures in local polls.

During the tenure of the present government, nine city corporations have gone to the polls so far. AL-backed mayoral aspirants were defeated in all except in the Rangpur City Corporation polls.

BNP-backed mayoral candidates won in seven cities. ALleaderSelina Hayat Ivy, who contested the Narayanganj city corporation polls without her party's support, won the election by defeating the AL-backed mayoral aspirant.

The defeat in the four city corporations in June came as a shock to the AL high command and government policymakers, who termed it a wake-up call before the next parliamentary polls.

But it had precious little time to recover enough to fight back in Gazipur. And thus the party freed another big defeat at the hands of its rival in a brief span of three weeks.

In his instant reaction, BNP-backed candidate Mannan said the BNP would win all elections in the coming days.

He said the AL government's misrule, its repression of Hefrjat-e Islam and support foratheists were the main reasons behind his success.

"We were confident about such an outcome," BNP leader Hasan Uddin Sarkar told The Daily Star last night at Mannan’s election office.

He said the election results proved that people in Gazipur had rejected the AL-led government.

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, who is also an AL presidium member, said the election results in Gazipur had landed the AL in an awkward situation.

He said many local and national issues and the party's weaknesses were among the reasons for the debacle at the Gazipur polls.

"It is an opportunity to leam from the defeat at the Gazipur polls. If we can utilise this opportunity, we will be able to avoid defeat in the next parliamentary election," said Quader.

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