Tangail by-poll results

The result of the Tangail-3 by-election shows that AL did not take lessons from the previous by-polls or local government elections, particularly the Narayanganj municipal election. Otherwise, how could it impose a candidate from the top ignoring the preference of its local supporters, and one who lost to the rebel candidate whom the AL chose to disregard, by more than 50,000 votes? More so when it was no secret that the nominee is known to be extremely corrupt. Unfortunately, corruption has permeated deeply into the party. In nominating a corrupt person the AL had in effect endorsed corruption.
Apart from the choice of candidates, it is giving the short shrift to the preference of the AL supporters of the constituency that needs to be pointed out. It seems that the party, which claims to have the largest organisational network in the country, is out of sync with the pulse of its grass roots party members. The election has exposed the serious disconnect between the party top brasses and its local supporters.
We are not surprised by the result of the Tangail by-poll outcome. In the by-elections and local body's elections since the AL's coming to power in 2009 have shown that, but for one, all other candidates of the ruling party, or those endorsed by it, have failed to carry the day in these elections. And the drift has been repeated once again with the win of the rebel candidate of the AL in Ghatail, who sought to go it alone having failed to get the party nomination.
There are many lessons that the AL can draw from the Ghatail debacle, and for that its policymakers must engage in serious introspection, primarily because of what the election has exposed -- alienation that has occurred between the top brasses and the grassroots party members who actually matter in the long run.
This election has bearing on our politics; and the AL and, indeed, all the other political parties who claim to represent the people take lessons from what has transpired in Tangail-3 by-election? While the BNP can take pleasure in the thumping defeat of the official AL candidate it should not forget that a candidate who broke away from BNP and stood on his own in the Comilla by-election won it. And there lies a proof of leadership's hiatus from the grassroots.