Chaos ensured at a gathering of owners and drivers of battery-run rickshaws in Chittagong city yesterday who accused Awami League Press and Publication Secretary Hasan Mahmud of tacitly seeking votes in favour of Chittagong City Corporation polls mayor candidate AJM Nasir.

With a High Court bar on legal action against the owners and drivers expiring on March 15, Chittagong Metropolitan Police on March 19 asked the around 50,000 vehicles to be taken off the streets by March 22, saying legal steps would be taken otherwise.

Addressing as chief guest, Hasan had assured that the rickshaws would run if Nasir, not BNP-backed candidate M Majur Alam, was elected, said participants.

The 1,000 or so people at the gathering, seeking a tentative date for their vehicles to be allowed to ply the streets, erupted in an uproar, shouting that their leaders had duped them into attending an electoral campaign.

Chattagram Battery Chalito Rickshaw Chalok Malik League had organised the congregation blocking off Reboty Mohon Lane, east of the Wasa intersection, from 10:00am to 2:00pm.

The racket prompted lawmaker Pankaj Debnath, general secretary of Awami Swechhasebak League, to leave without giving a speech.

"We were told that the chief guest will declare a date or give a decision from when we would be able to run our rickshaw. But without giving any date he cleverly sought votes," one driver of Halishahar, Harunur Rashid, told The Daily Star. 

Another driver, Mohammed Rafiq, said, "We joined the rally to run our rickshaws. We have not come here to listen to political statements or assurances in exchange of votes."

Nurul Islam, general secretary of Jatiya Sramik League's Chittagong city unit, who presided over the rally, claimed that some pro-BNP men had misled the crowd.