The Barishal-1 constituency comprises two upazilas -- Gournadi and Agailjhara.

If one visits the upazilas now, just two weeks before the national election, they may get an idea about the polls seeing thousands of posters in favour of Awami League and some of Islami Andolan Bangladesh.

A question may arise in their minds of whether BNP has fielded a candidate there. It's because they won't find any poster supporting the party's candidate except in very few areas in the southern part of Gournadi. They would not also find a party or electoral office in any of the upazila headquarters, let alone any visible campaigning.

The AL leaders said the development works done by current AL lawmaker Abul Hasanat Abdullah had left no scope for the BNP to come up with any issues before the election. On the other hand, BNP has nominated Zahir Uddin Swapan, who has not been in the area for many years, leaving him disconnected with both party activists and voters, they added.

But, BNP leaders allege they cannot carry out campaigning openly due to "rowdy activities" of the AL men and "inaction of police". "We cannot even move freely. How can we set up an electoral office?" Gazi Abu Bakar Siddique, joint convener of Gournadi upazila unit BNP, said.

In the last five general elections after restoration of democracy in early 90s, Hasanat was elected as lawmaker from Barishal-1 thrice. Another AL leader, Talukder Md Yunus, won in the 2008 election. Swapan was elected in this seat in 2001. Being a reformist leader, he did not get nomination in 2008.

Gournadi is considered as a stronghold of BNP, while minority-dominated Agailjhara is an AL stronghold.

The Daily Star correspondents on Saturday visited several areas of the constituency and talked with more than 25 people including leaders and activists of both parties.

While entering Gournadi upazila through the Dhaka-Barishal Highway, the correspondents saw a few posters of Swapan in Mahilara and Batajore areas.

"We saw some posters in our Ashokathi [next bus stop of Batajore] area after Swapan Saheb entered the constituency on Tuesday with a large number of people. Now we do not see him any longer and the posters have also disappeared," said an auto-rickshaw driver.

At Gournadi bus stand, around 25 leaders and activists were found at AL upazila office seeking votes through loudspeakers. No BNP office was seen there.

"The opposition leader [Swapan] has come to the area and held some programmes. But, he has failed to draw public attention and thus refrained from campaigning," Mizanur Rahman, a former central leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League, said at the office.

However, Abu Bakar alleged that they could not conduct campaigning due to pressures from the AL men, who have already attacked the houses of some BNP men in Mahilara.

He claimed they wanted to hold a meeting at Nalchira on Friday, but the AL men gathered there and forced them to call off their programme. They tried to hold the meeting again on Saturday, but the AL men held a counter programme there, he added.

"So, we did not hold our programme to avert a clash. Our leader [Swapan] talked with the OC, who did not take any action," the BNP leader said.

"We are now holding house meetings and giving necessary directives to our leaders and activists. The situation is not favourable for open campaigning now," he added.

Earlier on December 3, Swapan sent a letter to the Election Commission seeking security for his family and party activists under the Representation of the People Order (RPO).

He claimed he was afraid of attacks as Gournadi upazila unit AL General Secretary Harisur Rahman was delivering provocative speeches against him at rallies and meetings.

The BNP candidate on Friday told The Daily Star that at least 35 activists were injured in attacks and they were prevented from campaigning.

"Actually, they have kept me virtually confined to my house," Swapan claimed.

Swapan called a press conference today at 10:00am at his Shorikul residence in Gournadi upazila to discuss these issues.

Harisur denied the allegations straightaway.

Swapan, who was not seen in the area in last 10 years, was making false allegations finding no other issues to draw public support for, he claimed. "We don't need to prevent him. Development works [done by Hasanat] are enough to win public support."

On allegations of forcing BNP leaders to join AL ahead of the election, Harisur said, "No, they are willingly joining Awami League after seeing the development works."

Around 500 BNP men from Batajore union joined AL on Saturday, he informed.

On BNP's poor campaigning in Agailjhara, a local AL leader said the party was not organisationally strong in the upazila.

"Besides, an untold repression was carried out against the minority community in Agailjhara and Gournadi after the 2001 election when Swapan was elected. So, BNP has no moral ground to seek votes here," the leader told The Daily Star asking not to be named.

SM Afzal Hossain, general secretary of Agailjhara upazila BNP, who is now in Dhaka, said they would hang posters within a day or two.

Hinting at internal feud behind poor campaigning, he said either Abdus Sobhan or Akand Kuddus was supposed to get the nomination, but the party had chosen him (Swapan).

"We have to obey the party decision," he observed.

Tara Mia finds it difficult to even move his right arm deformed since birth. A bit tall and scrawny, the man from Sunamganj's Jamalganj upazila uses his left hand to have meals.

Yet, he is one of the 52 people, who allegedly attacked police with machetes, hockey sticks and iron rods in Mallikpur Bazar area around 4:40pm on December 28, two days before the 11th parliamentary polls.

He was named as an accused in a case filed by police with Jamalganj Police Station two days later.

"How can I attack policemen when my right hand is almost unusable and even my left hand does not function properly," Tara Mia told this correspondent on the High Court premises yesterday.

"I don't do politics. I live on alms ... I'm worried about my family's survival," said the 45-year-old man who went to the HC to seek anticipatory bail in the case.

Tarikul Islam, assistant sub-inspector at Jamalganj Police Station, filed the case accusing 52 named and 70 to 80 unnamed people.

According to the case statement, the accused gathered unlawfully in Mallikpur Bazar area and brought out a procession in support of "sheaf of paddy" around 4:40pm on that day.

They blocked the road and attacked police, leaving at least five policemen, including the complainant, injured.

"I did not participate in any procession whatsoever, let alone attacking police," said Tara Mia.

He was anxiously pacing up and down the court premises.

The fear of arrest brought the man to the HC from Sunamganj on January 15. Since then, he has been staying either at the roadside or empty places as he cannot afford to rent a hotel room.

His wait for bail lingered as the court could not hear his petition yesterday due to time constraint.

Like him, around 600 to 700 people thronged the HC corridors yesterday, seeking bail in cases they claim to be false.

These cases were filed in weeks before the election, mostly against BNP leaders and supporters, allegedly for vandalising campaign offices of the ruling Awami League and its allies, or for planning subversive activities.

They came from Sunamganj, Jashore, Sylhet, Bogura, Narayanganj, Sherpur, Netrakona, Mymensingh and several other districts. Many of them came to the capital over a week ago to seek bail.

A few of them told this newspaper that the incidents happened but they were falsely implicated in the cases.

Several hundred people turned up on the HC premises every day for the last one week. Many of them got bail while others had to wait for hearing.

Yesterday, they were waiting in groups under trees. Some were standing while several others were seen lying on the grass. Anxiety and anger were writ on their faces.

Seventy-year old Mofazzal Hossain from Sherpur's Jhenaigati upazila is one of them. Weary, he was seen dozing off around 2:00pm under a tree on the court premises.

He did not even know the charges brought against him. He was an accused in a case filed with Jhenaigati Police Station.

"I am not involved in politics but I was implicated in a political case,” he said.

Yards away, Manik Mia, who was made an accused along with Tara Mia, was crying, holding another person.

"I am very poor ...  I earn a living by rearing ducks ... sometimes I work as a day labourer.

"They made me an accused, but I don't know how I will continue the case against me,” Manik said in a chocked voice.

"I took a loan of Tk 1,000 from a neighbour, but I have already spent most of it in the last few days," he said.

Asked about the case against Tara and Manik, the complainant, ASI Tarikul, said only those involved in the incident were made accused.

TS Ayub, president of Bagarpara upazila BNP in Jashore, is one of the over 1,000 BNP men, who were accused in at least eight cases filed a couple of days before the polls.

"We have been away from home much before the election. If we don't get bail, we will not be able to return home," he said.

The Daily Star could not independently verify their claims. But there have been media reports that “ghost” cases were filed before the election, and even dead men, people staying abroad and injured persons were made accused.

A couple of months ago, the police authorities ordered the unit chiefs to scrutinise how such cases were filed in different parts of the country in September and October.

For example, police in the capital filed 38 cases against several thousand leaders and activists of the BNP and its front organisations within 12 hours of the BNP rally on September 30 at Suhrawardy Udyan.

The Daily Star visited the 10 spots named as “place of occurrence” in the cases filed with Hazaribagh, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, New Market, Kamrangirchar, Motijheel, Paltan, Shahbagh, Ramna and Jatrabari police.

This newspaper spoke with more than a dozen roadside vendors, shop owners and their employees and local residents around each of those spots. None of them could recall any incident of attack on police, vandalism or obstruction of police duty as claimed in the case statements.

Harunur Rashid, Krishak League secretary of Dhaka North unit, was attacked allegedly by the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its students' wing Islami Chhatra Shibir at a makeshift election campaign office of Awami League in Dhaka.

Ten Jamaat-Shibir men, coming on a motorcycle, hit Harunur Rashid, 45, with a heavy object when he was sitting at the campaign office of Kamal Ahmed Majumdar, a contender of Dhaka-15 constituency, at Mirpur around 9:00pm, Dadon Fakir, officer-in-charge (OC) of Mirpur Police Station, claimed.

Awami League activists managed to catch the perpetrators and hand them over to police, the OC said.

Among the detainees, one is Jammat men while two others are Shibir activists, he added.

Police has recovered a crude bomb from them, the police official said.

Harunur Rashid has been admitted to Shaheed Suhrawardi Medical College and Hospital.

A case was filed in this regard at the concerned police station. Dhaka(North) General Secretary of Tati League, SM Mosharref Hossain filed the case accusing 191 BNP leaders and activists.

Stepping into Chuadanga on Sunday afternoon, the first thing that stood out was the absence of “sheaf of paddy”, the electoral symbol of the BNP.

Only posters of the ruling party candidate Solaiman Haque Zoarder Selun and a few sporting the “hand fan” symbol of Islami Shasantantra Andolon and the “hurricane” symbol of Muslim League could be seen.

For a 200km stretch -- from Jashore to Kushtia, via Jhenaidah, Chuadanga-Meherpur -- the situation was the same.

In Chaudanga-1 constituency, comprising Chuadanga Sadar and Alamdanga upazilas, ruling party activists were campaigning in small groups. However, not a single BNP activist could be seen.

“Where is the BNP office?” this correspondent asked a tea stall owner. He pointed to a direction which led to an unassuming one storey building with no visible signs of being an office. There were no posters; not even of Md Sharifuzzaman, the Jatiya Oikyafront candidate. 

At the entry, a person introduced himself as Advocate Moniruzzaman, stepbrother of Shamsuzzaman Dudu, the BNP's central leader. He said the district BNP had rented out a portion of his house to use as the party office.

“But there are no activities here. All the election work is being conducted from Oikyafront candidate Sharifuzzaman's home,” he said.

Sharifuzzaman's house is a two-storey building with a large four-foot by two-foot banner, seeking votes for the “sheaf of paddy”, hanging in front of it.

Inside the house, piles of printed posters were gathering dust at a corner of the balcony.

This is also where a crowd of BNP activists could be seen.

Queried on why they were not hanging the posters, an Oikyafront worker said they had not gotten the chance to do so.

“Our workers cannot go to the field as ruling party men are attacking them. They even attacked my motorcade and injured the president of Jubo Dal,” said Md Sharifuzzaman.

Police are also filing cases against our activists, said Sharifuzzaman.

“Actually it seems as though we are contesting against the administration, not the Awami League. If the administration would not help them, they would not be able to stand in front of us,” he said.

Police have filed a total of seven cases against BNP men since the election commission announced the polls schedule. BNP men also filed three cases against AL activists, along with filing 12 complaints to the deputy commissioner alleging election code of conduct violations, he said.

“So we are waiting for the election day. We are not quitting…  If necessary, we will resist them,” Sharifuzzaman, a member of the district BNP convening committee said.

Another Oikyafront candidate, in Chuadanga-2, Mahmudul Hasan Khan Babu, had to leave his constituency for Dhaka due to oppression by ruling party men, he claimed.

However, when asked over phone, Babu said he had gone to Dhaka for some work and would return the next day. 

The AL candidate, Selun, denied allegations of using force against the opposition.

“I don't know whether the opposition is conducting their campaign or not; I am busy with my campaign,” Selun said.

The lack of pre-election festivity was glaringly present but more worrying was that the general people from Chuadanga and Meherpur seemed to have no interest in discussing the elections.

When this correspondent asked a grocer about the election atmosphere, he showed no willingness to discuss it or even try to guess who would win.

Another college teacher chose to speak but requested that his name not be published as he did not want “any trouble”.

“I do not want to talk in favour or against any of them,” he said.

On the way to Meherpur, at the banks of the Matha Bhanga river, trucks carried bauls singing songs inspiring people to vote.

Unlike Chuadanga, there were more BNP activists there.

Oikyafront candidate Masud Arun has been conducting election campaign from his office in College Road, Meherpur.

“In the town there is not much problem for our activists. But our campaigners are facing problems in the villages. Almost every day they are facing attacks by ruling party activists.

“I am conducting my campaign every day, but it has become a curse for my men. Police are arresting my people if they join my campaign.

“It seems my popularity is the reason behind the police repression on my party activists,” he said.

Arun alleged that in the last month, around 14 cases had been filed against thousands of BNP leaders and activists.

“They are even going the houses of BNP activists at night and arresting them. They [BNP activists] are not able to stay at home,” he said, adding that he hoped the police would play an impartial role in the coming days.  

He alleged that some police officers were arresting his men only for money. However, he did not raise allegations against his opponent Forhad Hossain Dodul, the candidate of the grand alliance led by AL.

When asked about Arun's allegations against the police, Md Mustafizur Rahman, superintendent of police in Meherpur, said they had rounded up only those who were accused in subversive cases filed earlier.

“We are trying to resist those who can cause anarchy during the election period,” he said. All of those arrested had records of creating anarchy in the past, he added.

“We have arrested many ruling party men who were involved in creating nuisance. But they never mention that.”