Awami League joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif on Monday said there will be no impact of the defeats of the party-backed candidates in recent elections poll to five city corporations on the next parliamentary polls. “These (city polls) are local polls, not national. There’s no national agenda in local polls,” he said while talking to reporters before inaugurating a tree fair at the Circuit House in the district town at noon.
On June 15 last, the ruling Awami League-blessed mayoral candidates of the in four city corporations — Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal — lost to their main rivals backed by the BNP.
Another opposition-backed contender, MA Mannan, won a landslide victory in Saturday’s Gazipur City Corporation election.
Asked about the reasons behind their defeat in the GCC polls, Hanif said local Awami League leaders and activists were ignored in selecting the party’s candidate for GCC polls, which led to resentment among them and brought the debacle for the candidate.
Besides, he said, Hefaat-e-Islam activists carried out propaganda against the ruling party which also influenced the polls to a great extent. The Awami League leader said some national issues like Hall Mark scam and alleged graft in the Padma Bridge Project caused the defeats.
He, however, stressed that they must take lessons from the polls and be careful in selecting candidates in the days to come.
Hanif, also a special assistant to the Prime Minister, said they will organise their party within the next three to four months removing all the internal problems.
Awami League organising secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, district unit party general secretary Asgar Ali and DC of Kushtia Syed Belal Hossain, were, among others, present.
On the other hand, BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed who addressed a sit-in programme arranged by the Diganta TV Paribar said the next general election must be held under a non-party caretaker government though their party-backed candidates won five city corporation polls.
“We’ll in no way go to the national election under this government, if we even win 100 more local body polls including the Dhaka City Corporations,” he said.
The BNP leader alleged that the ruling party men made various evil-efforts to take the results of Saturday’s Gazipur City Corporation polls to their favour, but people foiled those.
He also alleged that the government is trying cling to power by force as it got isolated.
Moudud claimed that people through the elections to the five city corporations—Gazipur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal— expressed their no-confidence in the current regime.
The former law minister also urged the government to immediately allow the Diganta television to go on air. – UNB
