AL MP accused of monopolising power
Member of parliament and upazila Awami League chairman at Badarganj upazila of Rangpur district, Abul Kalam Md. Ahasanul Hoque Chowdhury, has allegedly formed all of the 90 ward committees in ten unions on his own. He has been accused of monopolising power in the upazila.
This allegation was made in written statements by the local Awami League leaders and members.
From 7 to 15 November, members from 73 ward committees of Awami League including the upazila general secretary submitted written allegations to the chairman and general secretary of district Awami League and the central committee general secretary.
Rangpur district Awami League chairman Momtaz Uddin Ahmed told Prothom Alo, “We have received the allegations and are investigating the matter.”
Ahasanul Hoque Chowdhury aka Tutul, general secretary of the Badarganj upazila Awami League, stated no ward committees were formed at Badarganj since 2012 while Duke MP started forming the committees without informing party members. Moreover, he alleged, Duke secretly recruited members from Jamaat, BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party), Jatiya Party and nonpolitical persons. The real supporters, members and leaders of the party were not placed in the committees, he added.
Tutul said over phone, the MP had no contact with local AL leaders or members. He was all powerful and in cahoots with the local BNP and Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir. He added, the upazila Jamaat Amir ATM Shah Muhammad Rustam Ali was MP Ahsanul’s maternal uncle. One of Rustam’s cousins, ATM Azharul Islam, was a central leader of Jamaat as well and sentenced to death for war crimes. He claimed the MP was closely involved with the supporters of Jamaat.
Rangpur-2 (Badarganj-Taraganj) MP Ahasanul Hoque Chowdhury denied any connection with Jamaat. He said he would take action against anyone entering the party from Jamaat and Shibir. Moreover, he claimed, Tutul was spreading propaganda as he failed to make any personal gain.
Former general secretary of ward 4 of Kalupara union Awami League, Imran Sarkar, submitted a written statement saying, “The MP had formed a committee in secret in my ward with local Jamaat and BNP members while skipping the party members.”
Another former general secretary from ward 9 of Radhanagar union, Abdul Mabud said, Musa Mandal was elected as the chairman and Shariful Islam was elected as the general secretary, while Musa was a ward chairman of Jatiya Party and Shariful, a Jamaat member. Shariful’s entire family was involved with Jamaat-Shibir. He also added that ward 2 committee was formed with a former BNP ward secretary, Hasanur Ali, as its chairman.
Former general secretary of ward 1 Awami League at Radhanagar union, Deljar Hossain alleged, Ayub Ali and Asaduzzaman, both the new chairman and general secretary of ward Awami League were from Jatiya Party.
The same allegation came from the former chairman of ward 7 AL at Lohanipara union, Koilash Chandra Roy, who said the new committees formed by the MP had no connection with the local Awami League leaders or workers.
In reply, Ahasanul Hoque said, those committees were formed by the union AL leaders according to the party constitution.
The MP further claimed he was by no means involved in the committee formation and it was executed with two representatives present each time from the upazila AL. He said Gopinathpur, Bishnupur, Damodorpur union committees were not yet formed.
Allegations
Ramnathpur Union AL general secretary Abdul Hye Pramanik said, Nur Alam was made the ward 7 committee chairman who was the co-chairman of ward BNP.
Kailash Chandra Roy from ward 7 of Lohanipara union AL said, Abdur Rashid, a BNP ward secretary, had been made the ward AL chairman.
Former general secretary Abdul Majid from ward 9 said, Jamaat ward committee member Sultan Miah, whose whole family was involved in Jamaat also, was elected as the new general secretary of the ward.
Former general secretary Nazrul Islam from ward 8 of the same union said, ward co-chairman from BNP Dilip Chandra Roy was made the Awami League general secretary in the same ward. He said, ward AL chairman was made from a Jatiya Party union committee member Joynal Hossain.
Ward 4 Awami League office secretary Shahanur Alam said, Jamaat supporter Rabiul Islam was made the ward general secretary of Awami League.
Ward 4 former general secretary from Kalupara union Imran Hossain claimed, Jamaat ward committee member Shafiqul Islam and BNP co-chairman Abdul Hakim were made AL ward co-chairmen. Moreover, Jamaat ward committee leader Abdus Samad’s son Mokhlesar Rahman was made the ward Awami League chairman.
Investigation showed that nonpolitical persons were elected in the committees. Wadud Ali Sarkar, assistant teacher at the local Dangapara Government Primary School, was made the ward 4 Awami League joint general secretary while Zahedul Haq Sarkar and Mashiur Rahman, assistant teachers at Kalupara union Shantirdanga Government Primary School were made press secretary and executive member. They, however, said they did not know that their names were in the committees.
Chairman for the new Awami League committee of ward 2 of Kalupara union, Farhad Hossain, said Moksedul Haq, who supported Jamaat rather than Awami League, was made general secretary at his ward.
Local activists of Awami League claimed Tutul MP was accompanied by Jamaat and Shibir persons always while visiting Badarganj. They claimed he also worked against the AL candidates at the last union parishad polls at Kalupara, Radhanagar, Gopinathpur, Modhupur, Ramnathpur.
Rangpur division Awami League central party secretary BM Mozammel Huq said he did not know anything about the matter. If the allegations were true, then action would be taken according to the constitution, he added.