Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan, the former adviser of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, has collected the nomination paper to contest the upcoming by-polls to the Brahmanbaria-2 constituency (Sarail, Ashulia), after he resigned from national parliament and the party.
The by-polls to this constituency will be held on 1 February.
District election officer, Zillur Rahman, said a person, namely Abdur Rashid, collected the nomination paper on his behalf on Sunday evening. Mainul Hasan, the son of Abdus Sattar, confirmed the matter to Prothom Alo.
According to locals and the party, Abdus Sattar tendered his resignation letter to the party’s chairperson office on Thursday night. As a BNP candidate, he was elected lawmaker from Brahmanbaria-2 seat in the 11th parliamentary election. Then the veteran politician resigned from the parliament on 11 December, adhering to the party’s decision.
The party sources said Abdus Sattar was involved in BNP politics since its birth. He was elected parliamentarian five times and served as a state minister once.
Upazila BNP general secretary Nuruzzaman Laskar told Prothom Alo that "We heard that he collected the nomination paper to contest the by-polls. If he takes part in the by-polls as an independent or a party candidate, then he will betray the party. As we don’t recognise the AL-led government, all of our lawmakers resigned from the parliament. The party (BNP) has given him a lot. He was even made a technocrat minister. If he contests in the election, we will leave him."
"If he contests the election from this constituency, we will declare him persona non grata," district BNP convener, Zillur Rahman, told Prothom Alo.
One of our relatives collected the nomination paper, told Mainul Hasan to Prothom Alo, adding that "Collection of nomination paper doesn't mean to contest in the election. We will decide. However, our family has yet to make any decision over vying for the by-polls."