Khaleda Zia will contest in 3 constituencies, Tarique Rahman in 1

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has announced candidates for 237 constituencies ahead of the upcoming national parliamentary election slated to be held in February.

The party’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will contest from Feni-1, Bogura-7, and Dinajpur-3 constituencies.

Meanwhile, BNP’s acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, will contest from Bogura-6, and the party’s secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, will run from Thakurgaon-1.

The names of the candidates were announced by Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a press conference held on Monday afternoon at the BNP chairperson’s political office in Gulshan, Dhaka.

He said that candidates for constituencies not yet announced will be revealed later, while some seats will be allocated to allies.

Before the announcement, members of BNP’s highest policy-making forum, the standing committee, held an emergency meeting at 12:30 pm. The meeting, which lasted nearly five hours, was chaired virtually by BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman from London. The discussion focused on finalising party candidates for the upcoming national elections and reviewing the party’s strategy in the current political situation.

The national parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in the first half of February. The Election Commission has indicated that the election schedule will likely be announced in early December.

BNP standing committee members Khondokar Mosharraf Hossain, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Selima Rahman, Nazrul Islam Khan, AZM Zahid Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Hafiz Uddin and others were present at the press conference. BNP’s organisational and co-organisational secretaries also attended.