Ripon, Tabith, 3 others collect BNP nomination forms

Asaduzzaman Ripon and Tabith Awal
Asaduzzaman Ripon and Tabith Awal

Five aspirants, including Asaduzzaman Ripon and Tabith, collected nomination forms of Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday for contesting the by-polls to Dhaka North City Corporation mayor polls with the party ticket, reports UNB.

The nomination seekers bought the forms at Tk 10,000 at different times from BNP's Naya Paltan central office.

The three other nomination aspirants are BNP assistant publication affairs secretary Shakil Wahed, its Dhaka north city unit president MA Quayum, and ex-member of parliament Akhtaruzzaman.

Tabith contested the DNCC polls held on 28 April, 2015 with BNP ticket and boycotted the voting halfway through bringing various allegations, including widespread vote rigging and obstruction to voters.

Earlier, the party started selling its nomination from at 11:00am and it continued until 4:00pm.

On Saturday night, BNP standing committee members at a meeting decided to sell nomination forms among people willing to contest the upcoming by-polls to the DNCC with the party ticket.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said the nomination seekers will have to submit the forms to the BNP office with Tk 25,000 security money by 4:00pm on Monday.

Later, he said the party nomination board, comprising BNP standing committee member, headed by its chairperson will interview the aspirants on Monday night at the party chairperson's Gulshan office.

The BNP leader said the nomination board will pick one of the nomination seekers as the party candidate for the by-polls.

He hoped that the name of the party-nominated candidate will be announced on Monday night.

As per the schedule declared by the Election Commission, the by-polls to the DNCC mayoral post will be held on 26 February.

The DNCC mayoral post fell vacant with the death of Annisul Huq on 30 November last year.