Gazipur polls candidates have no favourites WC team!

Candidates of the Gazipur city polls could not stop themselves from joining the festivity of watching the World Cup football matches. But they have refrained from expressing support to any team publicly, fearing loss of votes.

As the campaign began, both the BNP candidate Hasan Uddin Sarkar and Awami League's Jahangir Alam started speaking against each other but they conspicuously remain silent on one issue - their favourite World Cup team.

“I watch the game first and then whoever plays better, I support them. There is nothing more special about it,” said Hasan Sarkar, 71.

Jahangir Alam, 40, said, “I take the decision of supporting a team after watching the game. I have no specific favourite team. But I feel sympathy for the losers.”

During a visit to Bharan in Tongi, this correspondent saw flags of a number of countries on the rooftop or balcony of high-rise buildings.

The posters and banners set for polls campaign more than a month before, were hardly recognisable for the damage caused by the monsoon.

The polls have been re-scheduled to be held on 26 June, after the apex court cleared the way for election dismissing a stay order issued following a writ petition.

Hasan Uddin, who once played in the second division football of Dhaka from the Fire Service team and also played in the Bangladesh railway team, was quite diplomatic in reply to query about his favourite team. “I played a lot. I was quite crazy about it. But after I joined politics the situation has changed,” said he, “I’ve always been involved with sports organisations. Still I watch sports events.”

Jahangir, the AL candidate, was not a big footballer like Hasan Uddin. But like any other Bangladesh rural boy, he recalled, he played big matches at the ground of Kanaiya in his village Joypur and on the compound of Bhawal Badre Alam College in Gazipur.

Jahangir Alam too evaded any question over his favourite team in the World Cup finals. One of his partymen said, “Will bhai (Jahagir Alam) risk votes disclosing his favourite team? If he says it’s Brazil, then the Argentina supporters will be angry. He’s silent for this.”

Jahangir Alam echoed the fear, “I will open up about my favourite team after I win the 26 June election, and I give my words.”

Does stalwart like Hasan Sarkar, who was the first Tongi municipal chairman, have fear of losing votes in case he discloses the name of favourite team? “No, not that. I have no interest in any team now. Only I like the way some of the teams play -t hat’s all,” he said smilingly.

* This report, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla version, has been rewritten in English by Nusrat Nowrin.