Abdullah Juberee . Mymensingh
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday urged the people to stand guard at polling centres across the country on December 29 so that none could ‘rig’ the polls or ‘change’ its results.
‘There are conspiracies to rig the polls at any cost. I urge you to go to the polling centres at dawn on the polling day and vote for paddy sheaf. But only casting vote will not be enough. You must stand guard at the polling centres until the results are declared so that none can change the results’, Khaleda said at a campaign rally at Singhajani High School ground in Jamalpur.
Asking the interim government, the Election Commission and the administration to strictly maintain neutrality in the polls, the former prime minister said, ‘The consequences will not be good if you help any party to rig the polls.’
Without naming arch-rival Awami League, she alleged that the party [AL] had patronised ‘violence’ and ‘corruption’ and backed away from its promises in the past.
‘People were held hostage for extortion, rail tracks were uprooted and people were burnt to death with gunpowder’, she said. ‘Bangladesh was made a champion of corruption during their rule…The people cannot expect good work from such a party.’
‘When they [AL] were in power, their leader had pledged not to call hartal. But after losing the polls, they resorted to hartal again and pursued politics of arson and assassination’, she said.
The BNP chief said that the Awami League had broken a promise made in public by joining the parliamentary elections under [Jatiya Party chief HM] Ershad in 1986 and was branded as ‘national betrayer’.
She left her Dhaka Cantonment home at about 11:30am Thursday and addressed rallies at Jamalpur, Sherpur Netrakona and Mymensingh.
On her way to Jamalpur, Khaleda suddenly asked the chauffeur to stop the car at Krishnajani village under Dhanbari upazila in Tangail district.
Leaving her security team, led by Special Security Force, stunned, she walked down a paddy field and talked to farmers Robiul Islam and Abdul Jalil for about 10 minutes.
She enquired about the kind of paddy they were harvesting and about how much did they earn. The farmers told her that the profits would be low due to high price of diesel. The BNP chief also inquired about the prices of fertiliser and was told that urea and TSP that had cost Tk 200 and Tk 400 in the past, were now selling at Tk 800 and Tk 4,000 respectively.
On the preferred pricing of rice, the farmers said Tk 22 to 23 a kg would be better.
When she sought their advice about what should be done to bring down the price of rice, they said production cost had to be lowered and the prices of fertiliser and diesel needed to be cut as well.
She replied, ‘I listened to your problems and if we go to power, we shall do everything possible to help you.’
Before getting in her car, Khaleda touched a paddy sheaf, the electoral symbol of her party, before the people and farmers of Krishnajani and adjacent villages, who gathered there to see her.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
