Cumilla city polls: Reasons behind Monirul’s defeat
As Md Monirul Haque (Sakku) was elected mayor of Cumilla City Corporation for two consecutive terms, his defeat this time has become a matter of discussion in the city’s political arena.
For defying the party decision not to contest any election under the ruling Awami League, BNP expelled Monirul, a joint secretary of BNP in Cumilla South and a member of the central executive council.
Alongside Awami League’s candidate Arfanul Haque, Monirul had to fight against Mohammad Nizam Uddin, a leader of BNP’s associate organisation Swecchasebak Dal. Nizam too was expelled from the party.
Cumilla’s voters, political figures and civil society members think that one of the major reasons behind Monirul’s defeat was that Nizam bagged around 30,000 votes.
The BNP’s votes were split as both of them were from the same party. It is assumed that Monirul would have gotten majority of the votes Nizam had got. Monirul was defeated by only 343 votes as he got 49,967 votes while Arfanul bagged 50,310 votes.
Among the other reasons for Monirul’s defeat include failure to engage his close leaders in the electoral campaign, organisational failure, presence of a fewer number of activists in polling centres, absence of polling agents in a number of centres and failure to get his own party’s support.
The stakeholders think Monirul had to fight alone in the voting. BNP, alongside expelling him permanently, strictly asked its activists not to engage in Monirul’s election campaign. As a result, no party leaders openly supported him.
There are allegations of irregularity against Monirul during his two terms in office as mayor. Moreover, waterlogging, traffic jam issues, failure to attract young voters, and disfavour from Cumilla-6 lawmaker AKM Bahauddin are among other things that cost the former BNP leader dearly.
Monirul, however, claimed that he was not defeated rather the election results had been snatched in favour of the ruling party candidate. He said he contested the polls only to serve the people of Cumilla city.
“The residents of the city would have misunderstood me if I had not contested the polls. I was at the helm of the city for around 16 years. No one was dishonoured by me. I tried to work for the people of Cumilla as a politician of the opposition party,” Monirul said.
Asked about the reasons for his defeat, Monirul replied, “Why would I evaluate the reasons for defeat while I have not even accepted the result.”
Local political analyst Ahsanul Kabir said, “I think organisational failure, lack of activists and failure to attract young voters are among the main reasons for Monirul’s defeat.”
Monirul was elected chairman of Cumilla pourashava for the first time on 21 September 2005.
He was elected the first-ever mayor of Cumilla city corporation on 5 January 2012. He defeated AL candidate Afzal Khan by a big margin of 29,106 votes. In the 2017 election, Monirul was elected mayor again defeating AL’s Anjum Sultana by 11,085 votes.