AL, BNP leaders pass busy day wooing voters

Though the two leading mayor candidates in the April 28 Chittagong City Corporation election did not join the official campaign yesterday, leaders of Awami League and BNP, which back them, passed a busy day wooing voters.

Before going on a campaign for BNP-backed contender M Manjur Alam, the party vice chairman, Abdullah Al Noman, addressed a brief rally in Nayabazar, underscoring that the immediate past mayor Manjur kept CCC free from corruption, crime, musclemen, and nepotism.

Referring to a speech of Bangladesh Chhatra League's city unit general secretary about "guarding" polling centres on election day, Noman said it was understandable that if their candidate won, CCC would be a shelter for party men.

In addition, BNP city unit President Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury held several meetings with the grassroots leaders and activists at his residence to galvanise them.

Urging a collective effort, he told them that BNP joined the election as part of its anti-government movement, according to a party press release.

The statement quotes Khasru as saying, "This is no ordinary vote. Our victory in the election will mean the defeat of [Prime Minister] Sheikh Hasina."

Manjur, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, will start visiting the city dwellers after Jumma prayers Friday, said party insiders, while his main challenger AZM Nasir Uddin, Awami League's Chittagong city general secretary, will meet the voters this morning.

"We want to start the campaign with the symbol. Symbols will be allocated on Friday," said Manjur's son Sarwar Alam, who is coordinating the electioneering.

Meanwhile, Nasir told reporters before a meeting of the city AL that Manjur won on the promise of solving waterlogging but he failed to do so in the last five years of his tenure.

"In one word, Manjur failed in every aspect as mayor," he said.

Nasir added, "Our leader ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury was unexpectedly defeated in that election due to such campaign of Manjur… this time we should exploit the same issue."

The meeting took place at the office of Nagorik Committee that campaigns for Nasir.

Prof Abul Kalam Azad, convener of Chattagram Unnayan Andolon, which nominated Manjur, said they would conduct a vigorous door to door campaign.

Apart from the two, several of the total 12 mayoral candidates so far and ward councillor aspirants started campaign by visiting localities and distributing leaflets.

While on a campaign trail in Panchlaish, Jatiya Party-backed candidate Solaiman Alam Sheth said he would focus on making a beautiful city out of Chittagong.

Returning Officer Mohammad Abdul Baten said they would closely monitor the campaign to check extortion, crime, use of illegal arms, and violation of the electoral code of conduct.