Smaller parties planning big
Little-known parties are planning big for the January 7 polls and a number of them are selling nomination forms to anyone willing to buy so that they can field candidates in all 300 constituencies.
Take Trinomool BNP as an example.
It says anyone can collect the nomination form from the party's Topkhana Road office by submitting a photocopy of their national ID card and paying Tk 5,000.
And people are buying the forms.
Shumi Islam, a homemaker in her 40s, collected and submitted her nomination form for Satkhira-1.
She was never involved in politics. "I never participated in any election before. As Trinamool BNP is gaining popularity ahead of the polls, I have joined this party and now planning to contest the election."
Forty-five-year-old Mainuddin, a trader from Cumilla, picked up a form from Trinomool BNP for Cumilla-2 yesterday.
He told The Daily Star that he never ran for any office and bought the form because the BNP was not running.
Taimur Alam Khandaker, member secretary of the Trinomool BNP, told this correspondent yesterday, "Our door is open to all. Anyone can collect a nomination form but who will get the party blessings will be decided in a meeting of party high-ups."
The party, which got registered with the Election Commission this year, said it will field candidates in all 300 constituencies.
It sold 402 nomination forms until yesterday evening.
Founded by former BNP leader Nazmul Huda, the party sought registration with the EC before the last polls. The party was denied and it filed a suit before a court to get registered.
It was registered in February and Huda's daughter Antara Selima Huda was the acting chairperson for a while after her father's death.
Later, former BNP leaders Shamsher Mobin and Taimur Alam Khandaker took charge of the party.
The Daily Star yesterday evening contacted Kazi Rezaul Hossain, chairman of the Bangladesh Congress.
Asked what a person needs to do to get nominated, he said, "You can obtain a nomination form by paying Tk 5,000."
Responding to a question about the requirement for party membership, Rezaul said anyone can collect nomination forms. "The forms for constituencies in Dhaka have been sold," he said.
Bangladesh Congress until yesterday sold 694 nomination forms.
Two other newly formed parties also said they would field candidates in all constituencies.
Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM) officials said a party-ticket aspirant only needs to pay Tk 1,000 to buy the nomination form.
Md Shahjahan, the party's new secretary general and spokesperson, said more than 250 people collected nomination forms till yesterday.
Party membership is required for nomination but when Shahjahan was asked how many members it had, he could not say.
M Sarwar Hossain, the founding joint convener of the party, said, "The party was hijacked by some opportunists and they are selling nomination forms illegally."
He said he would not run.
Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP) officials said that until yesterday a total of 236 party nomination forms were sold.
Al Masud Hasanuzzaman, former professor of government and politics at Jahangirnagar University, said political parties selling nomination forms to random people could be a strategy for publicity.
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