Newly elected Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) Mayor Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa said he will prioritise maintaining a good relationship with the government for the development of Rangpur.

"Development will not take place with my words. I have to maintain a good relation with all the stakeholders for the development of Rangpur. As the Jatiya Party is an alliance of the government, I'll maintain close contact with the prime minister," he said in an interview with The Daily Star at his Rangpur home yesterday.

Mostafa, a candidate backed by opposition JP, said the government could expel a mayor and appoint a pro-Awami League councillor as acting mayor. He also cited instances of this.

"But I'm not concerned about it. As long as I'm in the city corporation, I'll fight to ensure rights of the city corporation people."

Mostafa won the mayoral race in Thursday's RCC election, defeating AL and BNP contestants by a large margin. He bagged 1,60,489 votes, his nearest, AL candidate Sharfuddin Ahmed Jhantu, got 62,400 votes while BNP contender Kawsar Zaman Babla secured 35,136 votes.

He mentioned that development of city's communication system would be his first challenge.

Referring to a newspaper report, Mostafa said of the 11 city corporations, the highest tax was imposed in Rangpur and Rajshahi city corporations. “The tax should be reduced and I'll try my best to do so. I'll try to bring it down at a logical level."

Regarding taxes in city corporation areas, he said, "Taxes should be fixed, considering the income and opinions of the city people." 

As the city corporation is a service-oriented organisation, it should not put any burden on its dwellers, he added.

Asked whether Rangpur was deprived of development for long just because JP candidates got elected, he said no government thought about the development of Rangpur after Ershad regime.

Rangpur has become a division and a city corporation in this incumbent government. But job opportunity has not been created yet. Many people think they were better when they were in the union parishad, he said.

He added that after the upgradation of Rangpur to a city corporation, different safety net programmes such as Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) had stopped.

About the reason behind his landslide victory, Mostafa claimed that he also got the votes of AL and BNP supporters.

He said he was expelled from the party and contested the polls as an independent candidate in the 2012 polls. Moshiur Rahman Ranga, a JP lawmaker from Rangpur and also the state minister for LGRD and cooperatives, had extended his support to Jhantu, who won that election.