‘Relieve us from party activities’

In an interesting development, 10 BNP councillor aspirants have sought to be relieved from party activities ahead of the Gazipur City Corporation polls.

The BNP served show-cause notices to them on Friday for participating in the upcoming polls, but they replied en masse, citing "sickness" and "personal reasons" as their grounds for wanting to be excluded from party activities.

These aspiring councillors believe that contesting the election  is more important to them than being part of BNP. They say they are already popular among voters, with some of them having already served as councillors in the last two terms.

They say as the full-fledged committee of Gazipur city unit of BNP and most of its associate fronts are yet to be formed, they prefer to be identified as "former BNP leaders".

It remains to be seen how the BNP higher-ups will respond.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Hannan Mia, BNP's former convener of Gazipur Metropolitan Sadar thana unit, said, "I, along with several others, responded (to the show cause notice) by seeking exemption from party activities for the time being showing illness."

What's more interesting is Faisal Ahmad Sarkar, member secretary of city unit Sramik Dal, an associated body of BNP, will be elected unopposed in ward-15 as no other candidates have submitted nomination papers for councillor position from this constituency. 

Contacted, he said, "We are contesting as we did not receive any instructions from the party. Also, no action was taken against the BNP men who participated in union parishad elections in Gazipur before."

Another BNP leader, Muslem Uddin, said, "There was no clear directive regarding councillor elections from the party. They show-caused us out of nowhere on Friday. Now I have sought relief from party activities as I was left with no choice."

THINGS HEATING UP

Meanwhile, supporters of the Al-nominated candidate Azamat Ullah Khan allegedly vandalised the electoral office of independent candidate Zaida Kahtun, mother of suspended mayor Zahangir Alam.

The incident occurred on Friday night  in Bhandari Goli area of ward 49, following a heated exchange between supporters of both candidates. At least five supporters from both groups were injured.

Confirming the information, Sub-inspector of Tongi East Police Station Ohid Mia said, "After getting the information, we went to the spot and found chairs lying haphazardly in Zaida's election office. We have asked the aggrieved parties to file a written complaint with the police station."