14-party alliance devastated as Inu, Badsha, Manju lost in polls

Six leaders of 14-party alliance led by Awami League contested in the elections under the ruling party’s electoral symbol boat.

Although the AL shared seats with these six leaders, four of them were defeated in the 12th parliamentary election.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal's (Jasad) president Hasanul Haq Inu, Workers' Party's Fazle Hossain Badsha and Jatiya Party (JP) chairman Anwar Hossain Manju all lost to independent candidates.

These leaders refrained from making any comment on the debacle they faced in the election.

AL shared three seats with Jasad, two with Bangladesh Workers Party and one with JP. But the alliance leaders were insisting the AL to withdraw the independent candidates who are ruling party men from these constituencies. But AL did not budge.

The AL’s decision left these leaders in apprehension as many of them started fearing to lose their seats in the election.

Other than these candidates contesting with boat, these three parties fielded other candidates under their own party symbol. Sixty six from Jasad, 26 from Workers Party and 13 from JP contested in the polls. None of them could win the election.

Five years ago in the eleventh general elections, alliance partners of 14-party alliance contested in 10 seats and six of them won. No top leaders were defeated.

Inu contested in the last three general elections with ruling party’s boat symbol from Kushtia-2. He got boat this time too but Mirpur upazila AL’s general secretary Kamarul Arefin challenged him as independent candidate. Local AL leaders supported Kamarul, who rescinded upazila chairman post to contest in the elections. Kamarul defeated Inu by a margin of 23,000 as per the unofficial results.

Fazle Hossain Badsha got the nomination of the alliance for the fourth time in Rajshahi-2 constituency. Rajshahi city AL’s vice president Shafiqur Rahman became independent candidate in the seat and defeated Badsha.

JP chairman Anwar Hossain Manju was elected member of parliament from Pirojpur-2 for six times. He got nomination this time too but Mohiuddin Maharaj, who once was his assistant private secretary (APS), challenged him. Mohiuddin is the joint secretary general of district Awami League and former chairman of Zila Parishad. Anwar was defeated by Mohiuddin.

Jasad’s central vice president Mosharraf Hossain contested with boat from Lakshmipur-2. He was defeated by AL’s independent candidate.

Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon won from Barishal-2 and AKM Rezaul Karim Tansen from Bogura-4 defeating former BNP MP Ziaul Haque Mollah.