Popular YouTuber Ashraful Hossain Alom, also known as Hero Alom, will be a candidate for the Bangladesh Jana Dal (BJD) in the upcoming 12th National Parliament Election.
The BJD is part of the Liberal Islamic Alliance, led by the Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP). Nomination forms for Hero Alom were obtained for the Bogura-4 (Kahalu-Nandigram) constituency, representing the Islamic Alliance as the sole candidate.
Hero Alom's personal assistant, Sujan Rahman (Shuvo), collected the nomination papers from the Bogura District Election Officer's office. Mahmud Hasan, the Senior Election Officer of Bogura District, confirmed the collection of Hero Alom's nomination papers.
Among the six parties in the Liberal Islamic Alliance, only the Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP) is officially registered, having received registration from the election commission on 10 August. Syed Saifuddin Ahmad Maizbhandari is the founder of BSP, and the party's symbol is Ektara, a local musical instrument.
Ibrahim Miah, the leader of the Liberal Islamic Alliance and the secretary of the BSP office, clarified to Prothom Alo, saying, "Hero Alom is not a candidate of BSP. He is the candidate of Bangladesh Jana Dal (BJD) within the alliance we have formed. BJD proposed Hero Alom's nomination, and they have stated that if Hero Alom is not nominated, they will withdraw their candidature. As a result, Hero Alom has been nominated from the alliance."
The Bogura-4 constituency has a total of 328,469 voters, according to the Bogura District Election Officer's office. Prior to this, Hero Alom contested as an independent candidate with the Ektara symbol in the Bogura-4 (Kahalu and Nandigram) and Bogura-6 (Sadar) constituencies during the election held on 1 February.
In the previous election, he lost by just 834 votes to JSD candidate AKM Rezaul Karim, who is one of the partners of the 14-party alliance in the Bogura-4 seat. Afterward, Hero Alom announced that he would not participate in any election under the current government.
However, he re-entered the political scene as an independent candidate in the Dhaka-17 constituency, which was declared vacant due to the death of actor Akbar Hossain Pathan, known as acclaimed actor Farooq. Hero Alom faced an attack at a polling centre on election day.
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and the European Union jointly issued a statement condemning the attack on Hero Alom. Gwyn Lewis, the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, also posted a tweet condemning the assault on Hero Alom.
In the 11th National Assembly elections held on 30 December, 2018, Hero Alom filed nomination papers as an independent candidate. His nomination papers were rejected during two rounds of verifications.
Subsequently, he approached the High Court and successfully reinstated his candidacy. Hero Alom contested with the lion symbol. However, on the day of the election, he declared a vote boycott, expressing distrust towards the election commission and alleging rigging.