BNP's decision on whether to contest Gazipur polls after consultation: Fakhrul

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday night said the election in Gazipur city involves a lot of strategies that may have wide-ranging implications in national politics.

Blaming the Awami League for rigging the Khulna city polls, the BNP leader said his party will take a decision on whether to continue its participation in the Gazipur city polls.

"The ruling party had resorted to new tactics in Khulna polls as the polls atmosphere was apparently peaceful, but it was deeply flawed inside the centres," he said while talking to reporters at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office.

Mirza Fakhrul expressed his views that BNP-backed mayoral candidate Nazrul Islam Manju was sure to win by more than 100,000 votes, had the election been held in free and fair manner.

The BNP leader also said that his party had not taken any decision on whether it would at all take part in any future local government elections under the Awami League regime.

The Gazipur City Corporation election was scheduled to be held on 15 May until the High Court stayed the election process. The Supreme Court later cleared the process, giving the election commission to hold the ballot by 28 June, which is the date for voting now.

Meanwhile, UNB reports, the BNP secretary general hoped that their party chairperson Khaleda Zia would be freed from jail before Eid-ul-Fitr.

"We believe our madam (Khaleda) will surely come out of jail before the eid," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court order that had granted bail to convicted BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

Her lawyers, however, said the BNP chief is not going to be freed from jail now as she has been shown arrested in some other cases.