Bangladesh
Bangladesh Awami League is moving forward alone, partners are in trouble
Dhaka, 3 December 2023 : The grand coalition led by Awami League participated in the last three parliamentary elections by sharing seats.
After getting the confirmation of election in the boat symbol, the alliance leaders submitted the nomination papers. This time Awami League is moving forward by keeping the grand coalition partners apart.
The party has not allotted seats even though the time for submitting nomination papers has passed. Awami League has given candidates in 298 seats leaving only two seats of partners. Various discussions are going on in the political circles about it.
Leaders of the ruling party say that the matter will be clear soon. On the other hand, partners say it is a list of party nominations. There is no question of having names of alliance candidates here. But alliances will always exist before and after elections. Political necessity has led to alliances, that necessity has not gone away but has increased.
Mahjot has 10 seats in the current parliament. Apart from Awami League party candidates, there are independent candidates in these constituencies. This has created fears that if there is no consensus and Awami League nominated heavyweight leaders are in the field, it will be difficult to pass the partners. Besides, they are not leaders to be caught as dummy candidates.
Rashed Khan Menon, the president of the Workers Party, has been a member of Parliament three times from the Dhaka-8 constituency.
He also bought nomination papers for this seat. But this time Awami League's joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nashim has been nominated by the party. Rashed Khan Menon did not submit nomination papers here.
He later submitted nomination papers for two constituencies in Barisal-2 (Ujirpur-Banaripara) and Barisal-3 (Babuganj-Muladi).
Awami League has nominated Rajshahi Metropolitan President Mohammad Ali for Rajshahi-2 seat of Workers Party General Secretary Fazle Hossain Badshah. Awami League's Firoz Ahmed Swapan has been nominated in the Satkhira-1 seat of Mustafa Lutfullah, another leader of the party.
Awami League has not nominated anyone in Kushtia-2 and Narayanganj-5 constituencies. However, Hasanul Haque Inu, president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASD), a partner of 14 parties, has submitted nomination papers for Kushtia-2 seat. Former Prime Minister's APS Alauddin Ahmed Chowdhury Nasim has been given the post of General Secretary of the party. Jasd General Secretary Shirin Akhtar was earlier elected Member of Parliament twice by voting on the boat symbol in Feni-1 Constituency.
