Both parties form election committees

Awami League and BNP have formed election management committees ahead of the Sylhet City Corporation polls to ensure victory of their mayoral candidates.

AL on July 4 declared its committee with the party's district unit general secretary Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury as convener and city unit general secretary Asad Uddin Ahmed as member secretary.

The next day, BNP declared the committee with its chairperson's adviser MA Haque as convener and micro-credit affairs joint secretary Abdur Razzak as member secretary.

There is no representative from Jamaat-e-Islami in the BNP committee.

AL and BNP have held several meetings in the last couple of days in support of their mayoral candidates.

The election, scheduled to be held on July 30, will be a tough contest for BNP's mayoral candidate Ariful Haque Chowdhury as Badruzzaman Selim, general secretary of BNP's Sylhet city unit, and Ehsanul Mahbub Jubayer, ameer of city unit of Jamaat-e-Islami, are also contesting the polls as independent candidates.

Ariful still hopes that Selim and Jubayer would withdraw their nominations and support him. AL's Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran is comparatively in a better position as he is not facing any such competition like Ariful.

Abu Jafar of CPB-BASOD, Dr Moazzem Hossain of Islami Andolon and independent candidate Ehsanul Haque Taher are also contesting the polls.

Today is the last day for withdrawing nomination papers. Campaigning will officially start from tomorrow after distribution of party symbols.

Meanwhile, BNP's rebel candidate Badruzzaman Selim at a press conference in the city demanded that the party should reconsider him as their mayoral candidate.

He also questioned the sources of wealth of AL and BNP candidates and their family members.