Staff Correspondent
The election rally of Awami League turned into a human sea at Paltan Maidan and its surrounding areas yesterday as tens of thousands of people joined the party’s final showdown in the capital ahead of the national polls.
The gathering gradually wore a festive look when AL supporters from different areas started thronging the venue of the rally with colourful banners, festoons and AL’s election symbol ‘boat’ since morning.
AL leaders, workers and supporters in processions joined the rally by chanting slogans, singing songs and dancing to the tune of musical instruments. The huge gathering of the rally spilled over to nearby Motijheel, Dilkusha, Fakirerpul, Gulistan and Bijoynagar areas.
AL men chanted ‘Joy…joy…joy habe, Naukar joy habe’ (Victory will be for boat). People who gathered there earlier had received others by repeated clapping.
The rally began at about 2:30pm through reading out from religious text. All the roads around Paltan Maidan, including Bangabandhu Avenue, Gulistan, Muktangan, Paltan, Dilkusha and Dainik Bangla crossings, were full of people by 3:00pm.
As AL supporters continually arrived and tried to reach the venue of the rally, a huge crowd spilled over into nearby roads in front of Bangladesh Secretariat, Bijoynagar and Fakirerpool on the weekly holiday.
The AL activists and workers were then seen listening to the speech of AL President and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina through loudspeakers from those places as they could not reach the venue. Many people also painted Hasina’s image on their cheeks.
A banner read ‘Be united in the struggle for change, vote for boat symbol’ was hung on the podium. One side of the banner had the image of Hasina and the other side boat, the election symbol of AL.
Though the AL supporters thronged the meeting venue with enthusiasm, they were kept far from the highly secured dais surrounded by bullet-proof glass. Hasina also delivered her speech from behind bullet-proof glass.
The authorities opened the main gate of the ground around 2:00pm allowing people to enter through the gate, the only gate between Bangabandhu National Stadium and Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium. People had to go through several check points to enter there.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
