3 new parties stumble even before election
The newly registered political parties -- the Trinamool BNP, Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM), and Bangladesh Supreme Party -- have fielded only 29 nominees in 18 of Dhaka city's 20 constituencies.
Trinamool BNP and BNM have 16 nominees in the city. Eleven of them are either members of Jatiya Party or former members of Chhatra League and the rest are new in politics and little known among voters.
Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP) is an Islamist party, and most of its 13 nominees are disciples of Syed Saifuddin Ahmed Maizbhandari.
The Election Commission scrapped the nomination papers of 10 candidates from these three parties. Some of them appealed for reviewing the decision.
When asked, BNM chief Muhammad Shahjahan could not tell how many people were nominated by his party to run for parliament in the January 7 national election. He doesn't even know about the political backgrounds of the four nominees in Dhaka.
Trinamool BNP's 14 nominees submitted papers to the EC, although the party primarily announced 26 names in 20 Dhaka constituencies.
The three parties had earlier announced that they would field candidates in all the 300 constituencies across the country.
The Daily Star randomly contacted 10 aspirants of the three parties in Dhaka. None of them had participated in a national election before. Only one of them, former Jatiya Party leader Saiful Islam of Dhaka-19, had participated in a local government election in the past and became a union parishad member in Savar.
Saiful's candidacy from the BNM was scrapped by the EC because he didn't submit the papers proving that he had paid income tax, and his gas bill was not paid on time.
The BNM was able to field only five aspirants in Dhaka. But only two of them submitted nomination papers to the EC. One of them, Hossain Ahmed Ashik of Dhaka-11, is a former JP leader.
Besides, the Trinamool BNP aspirant of Dhaka-4, Rafiqul Islam, was an organising secretary of Jatiya Party. He is still in JP's executive committee. Contacted, he said, "I don't belong to the party [JP] because the party does not allow new leaders to come forward."
Among the 10 aspirants contacted by these correspondents, five were members of Bangladesh Chhatra League, one was a member of JSD Chhatra League, and the rest were not involved in politics before.
Shamsuzzaman, an aspirant of Dhaka-1 from the BSP, said he is participating in the election mainly because Saifuddin Maizbhandari had asked him to. An assistant general secretary of Ashiqin Awliya Oikko Parishad, Shamsuzzaman has been a devotee at Maizbhandar Darbar Sharif for 17 years.
Saifuddin Maizbhandari is vying for Dhaka-14. The party has 14 aspirants in Dhaka. One of them, Farahnaz Haque Chowdhury of Dhaka-11, is the chairperson of Krishok Sramik Party (KSP). She submitted her nomination paper from the BSP as her party is yet to get EC's recognition.
The Trinamool BNP primarily fielded two aspirants for Dhaka-18. Both of their candidacy was cancelled.
Dhaka-14 Trinamool BNP candidate Nazmul Islam lost his candidacy for submitting unsigned papers. He was involved with the Chhatra League in the late 80s.
"But I was loyal to the party [AL]. I have friends in the Trinamool who said to me that if I joined this party, I might be able to support the government and there would be a chance [to get elected] if some negotiations happened," he told The Daily Star recently.
Dhaka-19 Trinamool BNP candidate Mahabubul Hasan was a member of Chhatra League. "I love the Awami League. But competition is tough and the number of nomination seekers is large [in the AL]."
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