Gazipur, Khulna City Polls: Jamaat men eye councillor posts

The BNP-led 20-party alliance will nominate a single mayoral candidate for each of the Gazipur and Khulna city corporation elections.

The BNP has been asking Jamaat to withdraw its candidate since the latter bought a nomination form for the mayoral post in Gazipur City Corporation.

Alliance insiders said the Jamaat bought the nomination form as part of a strategy to negotiate with the BNP.

Jamaat leaders have been focusing on the councillor posts as they know very well that the alliance will not support them if they run for the mayoral posts, the insiders added.

“We have decided in general that we would pick a single mayoral candidate for each of the Gazipur and Khulna city corporation elections. As Jamaat has one candidate in Gazipur and had started campaigning, we asked its leaders to discuss the matter among themselves and make a final decision,” Nazrul Islam Khan, coordinator of the 20-party alliance, told The Daily Star.

With the party's registration cancelled by the court, Jamaat men had collected nomination forms for the polls as “independent candidates”.

Jamaat leaders said they were eyeing the councillor posts and would ask the BNP for its cooperation in the polls.

Although the councillor post is non-partisan, Jamaat leaders have already bought forms for 20 posts in Gazipur and Khulna city corporations.

The BNP-led 20-party alliance leaders held a meeting on Friday where they decided that they would take part in the election under the banner of the alliance and form a coordination committee of the alliance soon.

A Jamaat leader seeking anonymity told The Daily Star that the decision taken at the alliance meeting would be discussed within his party.

An alliance leader, seeking anonymity, said the meeting was mainly called to seek Jamaat's support to the alliance in the upcoming city polls.

“What Jamaat is basically doing is bargaining for the councillor posts,” he said.

Gazipur city Jamaat Amir SM Sanaullah collected a mayoral form as an independent candidate on Wednesday. 

Sanaullah told The Daily Star that he was hoping to win the election and that he had collected nomination form according to his party decision.

“Our leaders are discussing with the BNP leaders about the strategies during the elections. We hope that we will contest the election under the alliance's banner and the BNP will extend its support to me,” he said.

The Jamaat leader also said around 10 candidates would contest for councillor posts. Six Jamaat councillor aspirants have collected nomination forms so far.

In Khulna, the Jamaat has not collected any nomination form for the mayoral post. The party, however, collected 10 forms for councillor posts.

Shah Alam, assistant secretary of Khulna City Jamaat, said, “In Khulna, we have decided to contest the election under the alliance's banner. We will run for the mayoral post. We will also contest in the councillor posts in 10 wards.”

Elections in Gazipur and Khulna city corporations are scheduled to be held on May 15. Gazipur and Khulna city corporations are formed with 57 and 31 general wards respectively.