Zaman Monir . Sylhet
Ten heavyweight candidates of rival Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party are in the race for 11 out of 19 electoral constituencies in Sylhet division in the forthcoming parliamentary polls set for December 29.
Among them, 7 candidates are contesting the polls on Awami League’s tickets and 3 have been nominated by Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The prominent politicians contesting the polls on AL’s tickets are – the party’s presidium member Suranjit Sengupta, former finance minister and AL advisory committee member Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, advisory committee member Dewan Farid Gazi, former chief whip Abdus Shahid, AL’s education and human resource affairs secretary Nurul Islam Nahid, former cabinet secretary MA Mannan and former lawmaker Hafiz Ahmed Mazumdar.
The heavyweight candidates nominated by BNP in the division are – former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, former whip Fazlul Haq Aspia and former state minister Ebadur Rahman Chowdhury.
The main focus of attention in the division is Sylhet 1 constituency where two former finance ministers, Saifur Rahman of BNP and AMA Muhith of AL will fight it out. The Sylhet 1 constituency, the most important in the division, covers the city and sadar upazila.
Saifur Rahman is contesting the polls simultaneously for Sylhet 1 and Moulvibazar 3 seats this time while AMA Muhith is in the race only for Sylhet 1 constituency.
Prominent parliamentarian and AL leader Suranjit Sengupta is contesting the polls for Sunamganj 2 seat. He had sought nomination for two seats, but the AL high command nominated him for one constituency, sources in the party said.
Veteran AL leader Dewan Farid Gazi is contesting the polls for Habiganj 1 constituency. He was elected a lawmaker for the seat in 1996 and 2001.
Ebadur Rahman, former state minister in the BNP-led alliance government, is in the race for Moulvibazar 1 seat which he had won in the 2001 polls.
Former chief whip and AL leader Principal Abdus Shahid is vying for the Moulvibazar 4 constituency – the seat he had won three times in the past.
AL’s central leader Nurul Islam Nahid is contesting the polls on the grand alliance ticket for Sylhet 6 constituency. Fazlul Haq Aspia, president of Sunamganj district BNP and former chief whip, is contesting the polls on the BNP-led alliance ticket for Sunamganj 4 seat.
AL’s nominee Hafiz Ahmed Mazumdar is in the fray for Sylhet 5 seat and former bureaucrat MA Mannan is contesting the polls for Sunamganj 3 seat as a grand alliance candidate.
Two local heavyweight politicians of AL have not been nominated by the party this time. Sultan Mohammed Mansur, former vice-president of the Dhaka University Central Students Union and central organising secretary of AL, and Azizur Rahman, former whip and central joint secretary of the party, had sought AL tickets for Moulvibazar 1 and 2 constituencies respectively, but the party denied them nomination.
Economist Dr Reza Kibria, son of slain former finance minister SAMS Kibria, and Azizus Samad Don, son of late Abdus Samad Azad, were also denied AL tickets. They had sought AL’s nomination for contesting the polls for Habiganj 1 and Sunamganj 3 seats respectively.
Former chairman of the privatisation commission, Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, and former secretary and high commissioner, Mofazzal Karim, tried to contest the polls on the BNP-led alliance tickets for Sylhet 6 and Moulvibazar 2 seats respectively.
But they are out of the race due to some restrictions in the reformed electoral law, sources in the BNP said.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
