Election 2008Moulvibazar-3

Saifur's prestige fight with AL's Mohsin

25 December 2008, 18:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Moulvibazar

BNP stalwart M Saifur Rahman is locked in a prestige fight with Awami League's Syed Mohsin Ali in Moulvibazar-3 (Sadar and Rajnagar), who has emerged as a 'strong' candidate this time, political observers said. "I want to do my best for the people of Moulvibazar until death. This is my last election. So I want your love and valuable vote," says Saifur as he approaches voters. Saifur won the seat three times in four national elections earlier. Saifur is also a contestant from Sylhet-1 in the upcoming polls. As a founder member of BNP, Saifur was elected lawmaker in the second parliament election in 1979. He was afterwards made finance minister and within a short time, he appeared as an important leader of BNP. In 1991, he contested from Moulvibazar-3 and Moulvibazar-4 and was defeated to Awami League candidates. In Moulvibazar-4, he had also lost security money. However, he was made finance minister in 1991 when BNP led by Khaleda Zia formed the government. Saifur took massive development schemes for Moulvibazar. In 1996, he was elected from Moulvibazar-3 although BNP became opposition party in parliament. In 2001, Saifur was elected from three seats -- one from Moulvibazar district and two from Sylhet district. Later he retained Sylhet-1 seat and vacated other two seats including his home seat Moulvibazar-3.