Big shots make most of outsiders' last day

An employee checks the election materials at the Gazipur Municipality Auditorium yesterday as those would be soon dispatched to polling centres of Gazipur City Corporation. The auditorium is the temporary office of the returning officer. Photo: Sk Enamul Haq

Many stalwarts and central leaders of the Awami League and the BNP were involved in last minute frantic campaigning in the polls to Gazipur City Corporation yesterday as the time for electioneering ran out at midnight (July 3-4).
The city yesterday a saw huge rush of central leaders, who in groups visited voters' homes in different electoral areas throughout the day to convince them to vote their way.
The vigorous electioneering for Awami League-backed mayor candidate Ajmat Ullah Khan and opposition-backed mayor aspirant MA Mannan yesterday was probably the peak of the campaign.
Leaders who are not residents or voters of Gazipur will have to leave the city as per the Election Commission's directive.
However, local leaders and activists will get today to carry on with their campaigns for the candidates at the July 6 polls.
The district information office was seen making an announcement through loudspeakers in different areas of the city that none except residents and voters of Gazipur would be allowed to stay in the electoral areas after  midnight today.
"On the directives of the Returning Officer's office, we have made the announcements for the outsiders using one vehicle [equipped with loudspeakers] today. We will announce other restrictions to be imposed on vehicular movement and others tomorrow," Nasima Akter, assistant information officer, told The Daily Star.
Apart from 57 ruling Awami League lawmakers, assigned for the same number of wards, ruling party senior leaders Tofail Ahmed, Mohammad Nasim and Amir Hossain Amu were among the bigwigs who campaigned for Ajmat yesterday.
Opposition BNP central leaders Tariqul Islam, Nazrul Islam Khan and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury were among the BNP stalwarts who were on the hustings for Mannan yesterday.
It was a mudslinging contest as well.
Awami League men protested the BNP supporters' campaign poking at religious sentiments of voters while supporters of Mannan protested the negative campaigning against him.
"We are making person to person contact and trying to make the voters understand that BNP men are conducting a propaganda campaign,” said Ahmad Hossain, Awami League Dhaka divisional organising secretary.
Another central leader, Sujit Roy Nandi, said, "Since it is the last day, we are trying to make the voters realise how important our candidate is for developing Gazipur city and its industrial area."
Lawmakers Aslamul Haque, Junayed Ahmed Palak, Biren Sikder, Sadhan Majumder, Engineer Enamul Haque, Amanur Rahman Rana, Abu Jahid, Manjur Quader Qureshi, Golam Faruk Prince and Israfil Alam were among the campaigners for Ajmat.
Many leaders and activists of Awami League-associated bodies and pro- Awami League bodies were also campaigning there, said Amanat Hossain Khan, a campaigner for Ajmat.
BNP senior leaders Brig Gen (retd) Hannan Shah, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Osman Faruk, Shahjahan Omar, Shamsuzzaman Dudu and former Rajshahi city mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu also campaigned for Mannan.
BNP standing committee member Tariqul Islam said, "We told people about the misrule, misdeeds and corruption of the government. We also made it clear that the propaganda against our candidate was totally false."
Shoyeb Akhter, personal secretary to Mannan, said, "At least 80 central leaders and activists campaigned for Mannan today [yesterday]."
Meanwhile, at a press conference yesterday, MA Mannan protested news reports that “he indulged in corruption involving money of hajj pilgrims” when he was the state minister for religion during the 1991-1996 tenure of the BNP-led government.
"If I was involved in corruption, why didn't the authorities concerned file a case against me?” he said.
During electioneering around yesterday noon, Mizanur Rahman Minu along with around 200 supporters of Mannan disrupted traffic movement at Shivbair-Munshibari while BNP MP Asfia Ashrafi Papiya and hundreds of BNP supporters halted traffic while campaigning at Harinal Bazar area in the evening.
On election day, all institutions, offices and factories will be closed in Gazipur city. However, any institution holding public exams will remain open.