BCC market floor now a campaign office of AL

The ruling party's supporters in Barishal city have reportedly occupied a floor of a market belonging to the city corporation and transformed it into a campaign office for their mayoral candidate.

The move comes a month before the mayoral election and has sparked concerns about the abuse of power and circumstances for a fair and transparent election.

Despite eyewitnesses claiming that the space was taken over by former leaders of the Chhatra League, a student wing of the ruling party, the authorities concerned have denied knowledge of the incident.

Photo: Titu Das

Locals seeking anonymity said former Chhatra League leader of Barishal City unit, Tarek Bin Islam, and his associates broke open the lock of a 3,000 square feet space on the second floor of a market in ward-19, which had been left abandoned for four years.

They then allegedly occupied the space to use it as a campaign office for Abul Khair Abdullah, the Awami League mayoral candidate, in the upcoming June 12 election.

Swapan Kumar Das, administrative officer of BCC, said the corporation owns the market. However, he claimed that they did not know anything about the incident.

Meanwhile, Advocate Afjalul Karim, election agent of the ruling party candidate, said he was unaware of the matter and there was not supposed to be an election camp at that location.

Contacted, Tarek Bin Islam said the space was not being used as an election camp, but as a party office. He argued that there was already a party office in the same location, which had been handed over to a children's organisation. So they needed a new space.

Meanwhile, Shah Sajeda, former convenor of Sacheton Nagorik Committee of Barishal, said the city corporation should take a stern approach to stop such incidents.