BNP shares 49 seats with allies
Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday agreed to share 19 seats with its partners from the Jatiya Oikya Front to contest the 11th parliamentary election, but Gano Forum is still in bargaining with it for more seats, reports UNB.
BNP senior leaders said they also shared over 30 seats with the 20-party alliance components.
All the BNP's partners of Jatiya Oikya Front and the 20-party alliance will contest the election with its election symbol 'Sheaf of Paddy', except LDP chief Oli Ahmed.
The LDP president will be in the race with his party symbol 'Umbrella'.
A Gano Forum leader said they got seven seats from BNP, but they want BNP to share three more seats with their party.
He also said Nagorik Oikya and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab) got five seats each while Krishak Sramik Janata League (KSJL) three from BNP.
Gano Forum's candidates in seven seats are Subrata Chowdhury (Dhaka-6), Mostofa Mohsin Montu (Dhaka-7), Sultan Mohammed Mansur Ahmed (Moulvibazar-2), Reza Kibria (Habiganj-1), Khalequzzaman (Mymensingh-8), AMSA Amin (Kurigram-2) and Abu Sayeed (Pabna-1).
JSD's candidates under the Oikya Front are Abdur Rab (Lakshmipur-4), Abdul Malek Ratan (Cumilla-4), Shahiduddin Mahmud Swapan (Dhaka-18), Saiful Islam (Kishoreganj-3) and Nurul Islam (Shariatpur-1).
Nagorik Oikya's candidates who will get the 'Sheaf of Paddy' symbol are Mahmudur Rahman Manna (Bogura-2), SM Akram (Narayanganj-5), Shah Md Rahmatullah (Rangpur-1), Mofakkharul Islam (Rangpur-5) and Nurur Rahman Jahangir (Barishal-4).
The three KSJL candidates who got nomination from the Oikya Front are Kader Siddiqui's daughter Kuri Siddiqui (Tangail-8), Rafiqul Islam (Tangail-4) and Iqbal Siddiqui (Gazipur-3).
Of the 20-party, BNP shared 20 seats with Jamaat-e-Islami, five with LDP while two each with Khelafat Majlish and Jatiya Party (Zafar), three with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and one each with BJP, Kalyan Party, NPP and PPB.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir held marathon meetings with the alliance leaders at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office on Saturday.
Talking to newsmen while leaving the BNP chief's office after a meeting with Fakhrul, Gano Forum leader Mostafa Mohsin Montu said they have no misunderstanding with BNP over the seat-sharing. "We've told them to give seats to those who are popular and competent."
Asked how many seats BNP agreed to share with their party, Montu said they sought 10-12 seats from BNP and gave the party charge to finalise its decision on it.
He said they will collect the letters from BNP over the nomination from the alliance on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, BNP postponed issuing letters to its final candidates scheduled to begin at 8:00pm following demonstrations by supporters of some deprived nomination hopefuls.
Several hundred supporters of BNP international affairs secretary ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon (Chandpur-1), Taimur Alam Khandaker (Narayanganj-1) and Selimuzzamn Selim (Gopalganj-1) gathered in front of Khaleda's office around 5:30pm and started demonstrating there.