Election 2008

Hasina, two AL stalwarts vie for 3 Gopalganj seats

13 December 2008, 18:00 PM

Subroto Saha Bapi, Gopalganj

Clockwise: Sheikh Hasina , Sheikh Selim and Faruk Khan

Three VIP candidates are contesting in three parliamentary seats in Gopalganj this time. The three are top leaders of Awami League, which is leading the Grand Alliance. The three have been repeatedly elected from the seats securing record number of votes. Most of these candidates are yet to start their election campaign, as their rivals are very weak. As a result the electioneering has not yet got momentum in the three Gopalganj constituencies. In the town election is mainly confined to leisurely talks and in the teashop gossips. The VIP candidates are AL president and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, party presidium member and former health minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and the party's industries and commerce secretary former lawmaker Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan. District election office sources said, Sheikh Hasina won four times from Gopalganj-3 (Tungipara-Kotalipara) constituency, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim five times from Gopalganj-2 (Sadar-Kashiani) seat and Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan twice from Gopalganj-1 (Muksudpur-Kashiani) seat with huge margin of votes. The three were elected with record number of voters. In 1991 seat Sheikh Hasina won Gopalganj-3 seat bagging 67,945 votes while her nearest rival Hafez Omar of Khelafat Majlish got 17,256 votes. Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim clinched Gopalganj-2 constituency getting 93,015 votes against his nearest rival BNP candidate AFE Sharfuzzaman Jahangir's 9,661. In 1996 Sheikh Hasina won Gopalganj-3 constituency with 1,02,689 votes while her nearest rival BNP's Bishnupada Halder got 2,568 votes. Sheikh Selim won Gopalganj-2 seat bagging 1,15,032 votes against his nearest rival BNP candidate Sharfuzzaman Jahangir's 7,825. In Gopalganj-1 seat Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan was elected securing 1,19,536 votes. His nearest rival BNP's Md Khairul Baqui got 4,914 votes. In 2001 election Sheikh Hasina won Gopalganj-3 seat with 1,54,130 votes while her nearest rival Khelafat Majlish candidate Hafez Omar got 7,223 votes. IN Gopalganj-2 seat Sheikh Selim won securing 1,85,821 votes while his nearest rival BNP's Sheikh Saifur Rahman Nantu got 8,164 votes. In the elections many of the contestants lost their security deposit against their three VIP rivals. This time four party alliance has fielded BNP leader SM Jilani against Sheikh Hasina in Gopalganj-3, BNP leader Sirajul Islam Siraj against Sheikh Selim in Gopalganj-2 and BNP's Md Selimuzzaman Mollah against Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan in Gopalganj-1 constituency.