Campaigners brave bad roads, weather

Uttar Salna is still considered a remote area although it falls under the city corporation of Gazipur.

Instead of being happy, Karimunnnesa appeared annoyed after seeing election campaign teams making visits to houses in such area amid unfavourable weather conditions over the past few days.

“… No one came here to see or listen to our sufferings during the last five years,” she said angrily. “…People are now rushing to our area only to seek votes ignoring the sorry state of the road.”

“Even though my house is hardly a kilometre away from the main road [of Gazipur city], a rickshaw cannot even move on this road -- even during the dry season," said a frustrated Karimunnnesa.

But the ones seeking the votes do not have the time to listen to such stories as they have to reach the highest possible number of prospective voters within the next 11 days, when the electioneering ends.

With the deadline nearing fast, candidates including heavyweight mayoral candidates from Awami League and BNP have been knocking on the doors of prospective voters' houses braving poor weather and road conditions in Gazipur and Khulna city corporations.  

The AL and BNP mayoral candidates in Gazipur and Khulna started their election campaigning early yesterday morning and continued till the night amid torrential rain, report our Gazipur and Khulna correspondents.

Among the five mayoral aspirants of KCC, the main battle is likely to be between AL's Talukder Abdul Khaleque and BNP's Nazrul Islam Monju.

In Gazipur City Corporation, the battle of ballots to become the mayor is expected to take place between AL's Jahangir Alam and BNP's Hasan Uddin Sarker. Five other aspirants are also contesting the election for the mayoral post.  

“The election campaigning will end on May 13. We only have 11 days in hand. We'll need to reach the maximum number of voters within the deadline. We are going to voters ignoring rain or bad weather,” Shafiqul Islam, president of Khulna district BNP, said.

“Sometimes our leaders and workers, campaigning for the election, can't even find the time to eat…,” Mahbub Alam, president of Khulna city Jubo Dal, told The Daily Star.

Mayoral aspirants of Jatiya Party, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Islami Andolon Bangladesh were also seen continuing electioneering amid last couple of days' heavy rain.

In Gazipur, campaign members of Jahangir and Hasan Uddin were seen roaming around in different parts of the city to reach prospective voters in the middle of heavy downpour.

“We don't have much time on our hands. There are 53 wards in the city corporation. Therefore, we don't have the time to sit idle during the rain or rough weather,” said Selim Byuiyan, mass education affairs secretary of BNP.  

Akhtarul Alam, president of Telihati union unit of BNP, said although roads in the union have become miserable due to the heavy rain in the last several days, they have been continuing their electioneering ignoring sufferings.