Sources said keeping almost all the top AL leaders in the dark, a few influential party high-ups persuaded AL President Sheikh Hasina to give nominations to the Islamist extremists, two of them veterans of the Afghan war.

On the other hand, the AL has nominated seven candidates from its left allies which have been in movement with it for various demands of the 14-party alliance since its formation in mid last year.

The AL has finalised seat sharing with allies but it has bred discontent among many of the alliance leaders.

In the race for getting more seats than the other religion-based parties, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish (BKM) recently signed a five-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil, and got nominations for four seats.

The MoU stipulates, among other things, that certified Alems (Islamic clerics) will have the right to issue fatwas (Islamic religious edicts) in the country if the grand electoral alliance comes to power through the upcoming election.

Keeping in view capture of power, the AL has nominated Maulana Habibur Rahman, founder principal of Kazir Bazar Madrassa in Sylhet, for Sylhet-6 constituency. He had visited the Afghan war front on invitation from Harkatul Jihad al-Islami of Pakistan in 1989.

To ensure 'militant's' nomination, the AL had to sacrifice one of its learned leaders, Nurul Islam Nahid, who is education secretary of the party central committee.

It has also nominated Mufti Shahidul Islam, a veteran of the Afghan war, for Narail-2 constituency. Sheikh Hasina accused him of militant connection when he was a lawmaker during the BNP-led four-party coalition rule.

Two other islamist nominees are Mufti Habibur Rahman for Mymensing-5 and Maulana Tafazzal Haque for Sunamganj-1 seats. Sources said although there have been no specific proofs about their militant links, both practise religion extremism.

The AL has nominated two more leaders of religion-based political parties--Islamic Front, Bangladesh and Zaker Party. They are Syed Bahadur Shah for Chandpur-5 seat and Mostafa Amir Faisal for Faridpur-4 seat.

AL sources said nomination of Bahadur Shah will be withdrawn, and finally former home minister major (retd) Rafiqul Islam will replace him. Nomination of Rafiqul was finalised on Monday night.

The Zaker Party chairman has become upset over getting 'only' one seat, and he made a phone call to Hasina yesterday. He told the AL chief that he would not participate in the election. AL sources said if Zaker Party does not contest, they would put up their candidate.

The AL has confirmed four seats for Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) although the JSD claims six. Sources said JSD president Hasanul Haque Inu was bargaining with AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil until last night for confirmation of two seats --Narsingdi-2 Zayadul Kabir and Brahmanbaria-2 ABM Firoz Ahmed.

The four confirmed seats are Kushtia-2 Hasanul Haque Inu, Chittagong-10 Maeenuddin Khan Badal, Panchagarh-1 Nazmul Haque Pradhan and Bogra-4 Rezaul Karim Tansen.

The AL has confirmed two seats for the Workers' Party -- Barisal-2 Rashed Khan Menon and Rajshahi-2 Fazle Hossain Badsha. The Workers party leaders were trying until last night to get two more seats-- Satkhira-1 Advocate Mostafa Lutfullah and Thakurgoan-3 Shahidullah Shaheed.

Fourteen-party ally Ganatantri Party President Nurul Islam has been nominated for Noakhali-3. Moreover, the party submitted nominations from four other seats--Rangpur-3, Feni-1, Feni-2 and Narshindi-4, according to the party president.

Talking to The Daily Star AL Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader said nomination papers in several constituencies might be more than one but keeping one, all others will be withdrawn.