Awami League to withdraw candidates in 26 seats for Jatiya Party
Awami League has reached a consensus to share 26 seats with Jatiya Party in the upcoming parliamentary election. Sources from both parties said, ruling AL will withdraw candidates of ‘boat’-the party’s electoral symbol—in these 26 seats. 23 out of these 26 seats now have JaPa lawmakers.
The two parties reached consensus over seat-sharing at a meeting at the National Parliament area on Friday night. AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, presidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak, joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin (Nasim) and organising secretary Mirza Azam were present at the meeting.
Co-chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud and secretary general Mujibul Haque (Chunnu) represented JaPa at the meeting.
Neither party wanted to make any comment over the decision following the meeting.
Sources with knowledge of the development said AL has decided to leave the parliamentary constituencies of almost all important JaPa leaders including chairman GM Quader, secretary general Mujibul Haque, senior co-chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud, Qazi Firoz Rashid and Syed Abu Hossain, presidium members Fakhrul Imam, Shamim Haider Patwari and Masud Uddin Chowdhury.
All current parliament members of JaPa except four will contest this time too. Of the four, Raushan Ershad and Rahgir Al Mahi Sad Ershad are not contesting in the polls while Mashiur Rahman (Ranga) and Rustom Ali Farazi had been axed from the party earlier.
JaPa fielded HM Shahriar Asif in place of Mashiur Rahman in Rangpur-3. He is the nephew of party’s former chairman HM Ershad. Mashrequl Azam has been made candidate in Pirojpur-3 replacing Rustom Ali Farazi.
Sources said, at first JaPa sought 50 seats from Awami League.
JaPa sought Patuakhali-4 for the party’s former secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin but AL did not agree to concede this seat. Awami League’s Muhibbur Rahman is the current AL MP in this seat. However, Ruhul Amin’s wife is the current MP from Barishal-6. JaPa would get this constituency this time too.
An AL leader on condition of anonymity told Prothom Alo, “We’ve reached consensus that there would be no candidates of boat vying against plough (JaPa’s electoral symbol) in these seats. Now it’s up to Jatiya Party as to who will contest in these seats.”
It is not clear whether JaPa was content with this number of seats. However, a leader of AL present at the meeting told Prothom Alo that JaPa has accepted the negotiation with content.
A source in the meeting said, JaPa leaders pressed for negotiation in at least 40 seats till the end of the meeting. But AL leaders did not budge. It is not clear whether JaPa was content with this number of seats. However, a leader of AL present at the meeting told Prothom Alo that JaPa has accepted the negotiation with content.
Anisul Islam Mahmud and Mujibul Haque did not respond to several calls for a comment on the seat sharing. None other from JaPa also made any comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, JaPa has been preparing for the election alongside the seat sharing deal. The party has finalized the documents of nominated candidates’ seat allocation. A party source said it has finalised documents of JaPa candidates for 288 seats.