52 seek AL ticket for Barguna-1!

As many as 52 people have bought Awami League's nomination forms to contest the 11th parliamentary polls from Barguna-1.

Among the aspirants are incumbent MP Dhirendra Debnath Shambhu and Barguna district AL General Secretary Jahangir Kabir.

Party insiders said most of the nomination seekers were supporters of either Shambhu or Jahangir. The two leaders backed the local upazila and union-level AL leaders to buy nomination forms to show their strength during the interview before the party's interview board, to be chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The AL has sold around 4,023 nomination forms in the last four days. Of them, 4,000 have already been submitted, said party Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif.

The deadline for collecting and submitting nomination papers ended at 10:00pm yesterday.

Meanwhile, the ruling party at a meeting at the Gono Bhaban last night decided not to interview the nomination seekers this time. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the president of AL, and some top party leaders were present, said party sources.

According to a decision of the meeting, Hasina will address the nomination seekers at the Gono Bhaban tomorrow and give directives to them.

SHAMBHU-JAHANGIR RIVALRY

Two factions of Barguna AL are led by Shambhu and Jahangir. A group of party leaders, led by Jahangir, at a press conference in September had declared lawmaker Shambhu persona non-grata in his constituency. They brought corruption allegations against the MP.

Earlier in April, leaders of the anti-Shambhu faction met party chief Hasina and raised various allegations against the lawmaker.

Issuing show-cause notices to the two rival leaders, the ruling party then asked Jahangir to explain why the lawmaker was declared persona non-grata and Shambhu to give an explanation why such a situation arose in his area.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Jahangir said some competent persons have collected nomination papers to contest the December 30 polls.

“On information, Shambhu bought a large number of nomination forms with the help of his supporters,” he said. 

The AL leader said they only demanded the party nominate a candidate with a clean image for Barguna-1. 

This newspaper could not reach Shambhu for comments as his phone was found switched off.

Apart from Barguna-1, some other constituencies, including Brahmanbaria-5 and Feni-3, also saw a large number of nomination seekers. This has worried the AL as it will be difficult for the party to pick a single candidate in those constituencies and engage the others in campaigning for the party nominee, party sources said.

A total of 23 MP aspirants have collected nomination papers for Brahmanbaria-5 while 21 have bought nomination forms for Feni-3.

The AL candidate was defeated in Feni-3, traditionally a BNP stronghold, in the last national election on January 5, 2014. Independent candidate Rahimullah had won the election, boycotted by the BNP and other major opposition parties.

However, the situation was different in some constituencies which saw only one nomination seeker. AL President Hasina (Gopalganj-3), General Secretary Obaidul Quader (Noakhali-5), presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim (Gopalganj-2), central committee member Abul Hasnat Abdullah (Barishal-1), and Hasina's cousins Sheikh Helaluddin (Bagerhat-1) and Sheikh Jewel (Khulna-2) are the lone nomination seekers in their respective constituencies, said sources.

LOOKING FOR LOYAL CANDIDATES

The AL's nomination seekers have been asked to describe in the nomination paper their families' role during the Liberation War in 1971, after the assassination of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 and during the political changeover in 2007.

Contacted, a central AL leader said the party faced its biggest crisis since the assassination of Bangabandhu when Hasina was put behind bars and some of its leaders tried to keep her out of politics. “So the Awami League wants to know about the nomination seekers' role during its crisis moment. It will help us find out leaders who are dedicated and loyal to the party and its president,” he told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

STAR ASPIRANTS

Several prominent personalities have bought AL's nomination forms. Among them are Bangladesh ODI cricket captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (Narail-2) and former Bangladesh high commissioner to Australia Lt Gen (retd) Masud Uddin Chowdhury (Feni-3), a much talked about army official during the rule of the military-backed caretaker government in 2007.   

Besides, film actors Farooque Pathan, Shakil Khan, TV personalities Shomi Kaiser and Rokeya Prachi also bought nomination papers.