BNP processions throng Naya Paltan

A total of 29 persons had bought BNP nomination forms for four vacant parliament seats. Their supporters thronged the road in front of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s central office in Naya Paltan as these leaders came to submit their forms on Friday. From 10:00am the nomination aspirants arrived along with processions of their supporters and submitted their forms.

The leaders and party men were mostly focused on the Dhaka-5 and Dhaka 18 seats. A total of 15 persons had bought nomination forms for these two by-elections. By the evening, all the forms had been submitted.

Nomination seeker of Dhaka-18, SM Jahangir Hossain, was an exception in buying and submitting his form. In order to catch the attention of BNP’s top leadership, on the day of buying the form, he brought along with him the presidents and secretaries of the seven organisational thanas. Then after submitting the form on Friday, he gathered a large section of leaders and activists of the party’s affiliated fronts as well as supporters in Naya Paltan. The party men came along with their leader amid the coronavirus pandemic. They held up the party symbol, sheaf of paddy, as well as portraits of Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman.

SM Jahangir Hossain told newsmen, “In 1991 Begum Khaleda Zia was elected member of parliament from this seat and became the prime minister. All the development here happened during BNP rule. If the party nominates me, the ‘sheaf of paddy’ will win this seat.”

The nomination seekers submitted their forms to BNP’s senior joint secretary general, in charge of the party’s central office, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi. He left after 3:00pm. After that the forms were deposited with the officers and employees of the party central office.

Office assistant of BNP’s central office, Abdul Gaffar, told Prothom Alo that 9 forms had been submitted for the Dhaka-18 seat. Those submitting forms for the seat included president of Muktijoddha Dal, Ishtiaque Aziz Ulfath, SM Jahangir Hossain, M Kafil Uddin Ahmed, Bahauddin Sadi, Akhter Hossain, Abbas Uddin, Md Ismail Hossain, Mostafizur Rahman and Mostafa Zaman.

Six forms were deposited for the Dhaka-5 seat, including by BNP city (south) vice president Nabi Ullah Nabi. The others were Salahuddin Ahmed, Selim Bhuiyan, Akbar Hossain Nantu, Jumman Miah and Anwar Hossain Sardar.

Submitting forms for the Sirajganj-1 seat were BM Tahjibul Islam, Nazmul Hasan Talukdar Rana and Rabiul Hasan.

For the Naogaon-6 seat, BNP’s national executive committee member Anwar Hossain (Bulu) submitted his form. He is the brother of the party’s former member of parliament Alamgir Kabir. Also submitting forms for this seat were Abdus Shukur, MM Faruk James, Mahmudul Arefin Swapan, Ishaq Ali, Atiqur Rahman Ratan Molla, Sheikh Md Rezaul Islam, Md Shafiqul Islam and Abu Sayeed Rafiqul Alam Rafiq.

Speaking to newspersons in Naya Paltan, Anwar Hossain said, “I hope that through this by-election, the victorious struggle to restore democracy in Atrai-Raninagar will begin with my winning in the coming election.”

The interviews of the nomination seekers will be held at 5:00pm on Saturday at the BNP chairperson’s office in Gulshan.