Interview

All independent candidates are from Awami League: Jaya Sengupta

Jaya Sengupta is the wife of late Suranjit Sengupta, who was a leader of the Awami League and seven-time member of parliament from the Sunamganj-2 constituency. She first became a lawmaker on Awami League ticket from this seat in the by-polls in 2017 following the death of her husband. Again, she was elected lawmaker from Awami League in the 11th parliamentary election in 2018. This time, Jaya Sengupta also sought the party nomination but did not get it. So, she contested the polls independently and won. Jaya Sengupta spoke to Prothom Alo’s Shuhada Afrin about the 12th parliamentary election Tuesday

Prothom Alo:

You become lawmaker twice, but did not get the party nomination this time. Yet you won the polls. What are issues that have worked for this victory?

The love of people works for this. My husband had long been in politics. He had grown up among these people who elected him lawmaker repeatedly, and the love of people to him has worked for me.

Prothom Alo:

Your opponent was the boat candidate Abduallah Al Mahmud, the younger brother of inspector general of police Abdullah Al-Mamun. And again, you did not get the party nomination. Did you face any challenge because of all these?

No, I did not get the party nomination. But to say otherwise, this is not correct. All of the independent candidates were from Awami League. I have the blessing of the party chief Sheikh Hasina. Since it is not possible to allocate party symbol to no more than 300 candidates, we contested the polls independently.

Prothom Alo:

You contested the election independently. So, taking everything into consideration including human resources, how does it become possible to emerge victorious?

My human resources are the voters. They have voted for me out of love. They loved my husband so much, and they have also loved me. Everything has reflected in vote.

Prothom Alo:

There are about 275,000 voters in your constituency, but voter turnout was low. What are the reasons?

This time, fewer votes were cast. I think people were afraid. My opponent committed violence in previous election in the upazila parishad, and people might have been terrified for that.

Prothom Alo:

Previously, you became an MP twice from Awami League. This time, you won as an independent lawmaker. Do you have anything new in your mind on your role in parliament?

I will represent the boat in parliament. I was ill for quite some time during the last term. I could not do many things despite I had the willingness to do it. Now I plan to complete the remaining tasks.