AL stunned by huge defeat

The humiliating defeat of the Awami League mayoral candidate in the Rangpur City Corporation polls has stunned the local leaders and activists of the party.

Locals and AL insiders say inactiveness of the party's Rangpur unit and its candidate Sharfuddin Ahmed Jhantu's inept handling of voters were the main reasons behind the debacle.

In this election, the central AL leaders were not as active as they had been in the Narayanganj and Comilla city corporation polls, they point out. 

The AL high command also did not do enough to reduce the gap between former mayor Jhantu and local AL activists, mention party insiders.

Jhantu, who was elected mayor in the maiden Rangpur City Corporation polls with the AL's support in 2012, saw a fall in the number of votes in the just-concluded polls.  

He got 62,400 votes while his rival Jatiya Party candidate Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa bagged 1,60,489 votes. BNP candidate Kawsar Zaman Babla secured 35,136 votes, showed Thursday's unofficial results from all the 193 polling centres.

In the previous election, Jhantu defeated Mostafa by 30,000 votes, bagging 106,255 votes. JP-backed AKM Abdur Rouf Manik got 37,208 votes while BNP-backed Kawsar bagged only 21,235 votes.

Mostafa's win can be seen as a revenge for his defeat to Jhantu in the 2012 election held on non-partisan basis. Thursday's polls were held along the party line.

A number of local AL leaders told this newspaper that voters have a perception that Jhantu is “ill-mannered”, and that there is a big distance between him and local party leaders.

They said they had anticipated that Jhantu would face defeat, but it was beyond their imagination that the margin would be so huge.

“Only Awami League leaders and workers voted for Jhantu. He did not even get the votes of the party supporters,” Rezaul Karim Razu, general secretary of Rangpur district AL, told this correspondent yesterday.

Asked whether the party unit's inactiveness was the main reason behind the debacle, he said many party leaders worked for Jhantu due to pressure from the central leaders. But most of them did not do it spontaneously.

JP sources said that after the voting, party Chairman HM Ershad phoned AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader and expressed satisfaction over the polls.

Later, Quader told journalists that the AL suffered defeat in the election but democracy has won.

JP leaders said this result will give the party an edge in negotiation with its alliance partners in the upcoming national election.

“This election will impact national politics. It has proved once again that Rangpur is still a stronghold of the Jatiya Party,” newly elected mayor Mostafa told this correspondent yesterday.

Local BNP leaders said its candidate Kawsar got 14,000 more votes in Thursday's election compared to the last polls.

Seeking anonymity, a district BNP leader said party supporters could anticipate that they would not win the polls, and many of them voted for the JP candidate to ensure AL's defeat.

Speaking to journalists in Sylhet yesterday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said he is confident that the outcome of the Rangpur polls will not have any impact on the upcoming national polls.

The polls results proved the neutrality of the election process, he added.

According to unofficial results, AL-backed candidates won 16 posts of councillors, BNP-supported ones six and JP-backed candidates two.

Talking to this newspaper, Aftab Hossain, secretary of Sushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujan) in Rangpur, said, “The election result is an indication for the ruling party about how popular it is among the people, what its strategy should be, and what type of candidate it should pick for the next polls.”

Tuhin Wadud, researcher, writer and a teacher of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur, said, “Jhantu was the best choice for the Awami League. If the party leaders and activists had worked seriously, the party could have narrowed the gap. It seems local BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders also voted for Mostafa to make sure that the Awami League candidate loses.”