BNP votes might decide results

With the opposition BNP boycotting the Tangail-3 by-election, the three candidates desperately tried to draw the BNP vote bank which is believed to decide the results of tomorrow's poll as campaigning closed yesterday.
The early favourites however are Awami League-nominated candidate Shahidul Islam Lebu and AL rebel Amanur Rahman Khan Rana, who is contesting independently.
A campaigner for Rana said their candidate would bag most of the BNP votes, as the past BNP leaders in Ghatail were all from Rana's family and a former local BNP lawmaker was Rana's uncle.
Rana, religious affairs secretary of Tangail district AL, was expelled from the AL yesterday for violating the party decision. He is contesting the election with the symbol of pineapple.
The chief campaigner for Lebu called Rana an outsider and said conscious Ghatail people would not vote for any outsider. The people will vote for Lebu, former Ghatail upazila AL general secretary, considering him a local candidate, he said.
Ghatail upazila Jatiya Party said their candidate Syed Abu Yusuf Abdullah Tuhin would get most of the BNP votes, the anti-AL votes alongside his party votes. Tuhin, an industrialist, has got the electoral symbol of plough.
Ghatail BNP however called the election one-sided and said most of the BNP supporters would not go to the polling stations.