AL Ticket for NCC Mayor: Ivy wants Hasina to intervene

Selina Hayat Ivy. Star file photo

Narayanganj City Corporation Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy will seek Awami League President Sheikh Hasina's intervention in getting party ticket for the upcoming mayoral polls, as the city AL has excluded her from the list of prospective candidates.

At an extended meeting on Monday, the city AL picked its President Anwar Hossain and two other party leaders as candidates for the mayoral election to be held on partisan lines on December 22.

The city unit has already sent the list of its nominees to the party central committee, said AL sources.

Anwar, who was known as a critic of influential AL lawmaker Shamim Osman, worked as Ivy's chief election coordinator in the 2011 mayoral election.

But he gradually distanced himself from Ivy. And in the last couple of years, he got close to Shamim with whom Ivy has longstanding rivalry, said party insiders. 

This time, Shamim has thrown his weight behind Anwar to help him get party nomination, they added.

Contacted, Ivy said she would seek the premier's intervention in the matter.

“It is the party President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who will decide on it. I will accept whatever decision she makes,” said Ivy, who has recently been made vice president of the district AL unit.

Earlier, she told local journalists at her office, “I haven't done anything controversial for which she [Hasina] wouldn't give me nomination.”

Talking to The Daily Star last night, she said, “I won't take part in the election, going against the party decision. Let the leader [party chief] decide … I will work for the candidate the party nominates.”

About the city AL's decision, the mayor said “a single individual's voice” cannot be deemed as the voice of the grassroots.

“How many voices from the grassroots were there at Monday's meeting?” asked Ivy.

City AL Vice President Chandan Seal, who presided over the meeting, said none of the party leaders proposed Ivy's name at the meeting.

Asked whether Shamim Osman had any influence over the grassroots leaders' meeting, he said 149 of the 155 city unit leaders joined the meeting, and all of them proposed Anwar's name.

Claiming that Shamim had no role in it, Chandan said the party's grassroots leaders don't like Ivy for her controversial comments on the party and its chief. 

He noted that grassroots leaders' opinion in selecting candidates is important in the local body election.

Contacted, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader said it is not right that party nominee would always be picked from the list prepared by the grassroots.

The party's nomination board for local body election would finalise the selection of candidate based on various survey reports, said Quader, also road transport and bridges minister.

Nominations were given this way in the last union parishad and municipal elections, he added.

In the 2011 NCC election, the AL backed Shamim Osman but it failed to stop Ivy from joining the race. She defeated her archrival Shamim by more than one lakh votes.

The Election Commission recently announced polls schedules for the next NCC elections. The last date for submission of nomination papers is November 24 and that for withdrawal of candidacy is December 4. Election symbols would be given to the candidates on December 5.

BNP STILL UNDECIDED

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said they were yet to decide on participating in the election.

“We will sit in a day or two to decide on it and let you know,” he told this correspondent.

However, several BNP leaders have already started lobbying with the party high command for getting party ticket.

District BNP General Secretary ATM Kamal and city BNP leader Sakhawat Hossain Khan are running publicity campaigns as BNP's prospective mayoral candidates. At the same time, they are lobbying with key central leaders to get party nomination, said BNP insiders.

Narayanganj District BNP President Taimur Alam Khandakar, who contested the 2011 polls as a pro-BNP candidate, showed unwillingness to take part in the mayoral election.

He, however, told this correspondent yesterday that there was still scope for discussion on the matter at party forum.

The Jatiya Party is likely to pick Parvin Osman, wife of former JP lawmaker and Shamim's brother Nasim Osman, as its candidate, said party sources.