No Coordination In Sylhet Bnp Campaign

Khaleda's peace move falls flat as rivals unmoved

16 December 2008, 18:00 PM

Iqbal Siddiquee, Sylhet

Saifur Rahman and Ilyas Ali

The national election is days away, but the 4-party alliance camp is yet to mend their internal feud, which might dim its election prospects in the district. There is no coordination in campaign in the six constituencies in the district because of feud within BNP and with Jamaat-e-Islami, party insiders said. Party chief Bagum Khalada Zia's mediation efforts during her recent visit apparently failed as the factions led by Saifur Rahman and Ilyas Ali held separate programmes on the Victory Day. All the four BNP candidates and the two of Jamaat are campaigning on their own. The rivalry between factions backed by district BNP convener M Ilyas Ali and party stalwart M Saifur Rahman has trickled down to grassroots level. On December 12, at meetings at Sylhet Circuit house, party chief Begum Khakeda Zia asked leaders of both factions to end old rivalry and work together for victory of alliance candidates in the district. Party sources said Sylhet city BNP secretary Nasim Hossain on Sunday phoned Ilyas to jointly place wreaths at Sylhet Central Shahid Minar. But Ilyas declined, even after getting another phone call from Saifur Rahman. The factions placed wreaths separately. Khaleda Zia formally started her election campaign through visits to the three shrines in Sylhet on December 12. But, the party did not organise any public meeting in Sylhet-1 constituency, where Saifur is set to face Awami League's AMA Muhit. The BNP chief addressed her first election meeting at Lalabazar in Dakshin Surma of Sylhet-3 and at Dayamir of Sylhet-2. Neither Saifur nor any of the front ranking leaders among his followers joined those, raising questions among political observers. Former lawmaker Shafi Ahmed Chowdhury and Ilyas Ali are contesting from those seats respectively. Shafi is among the three former BNP lawmakers who are with Ilyas for years. None of the speakers, including central and local party leaders spoke anything about Saifur at those meetings. To add fuel to it, Saifur in an interview with a TV channel on December 12 criticised his rival faction. Although Saifur and Ilyas had talked over phone on occasions in last few days, things will not ease soon, party insiders said. However, Saifur managed bringing back to the aprty fold former pourashava chairman AFM Kamal, who was away from politics since the first city corporation elections in 2003. Kamal had protested Saifur's decision to field the then district BNP chief MA Haque to contest for the post of mayor. Kamal ran independently as BNP expelled him. The expulsion was withdrawn last week,. Kamal has joined Saifur's campaign. On the other hand, 4-party alliance at a meeting at Ilyas's the Sylhet city house on December 13 formed a 51-member committee for the polls campaign. Participation of Jamat's former lawmaker Moulana Farid Chowdhury and some other party leaders including Dr. Shafiqur Rahman at the meeting surprised all as Jamaat's relations with Ilyas faction was not happy earlier. Most alliance men feel these are just eye-wash attempts and they are not so optimistic about ending the internal feud.