Loyal bigwigs' corruption behind Saifur's defeat

Party insiders tell The Daily Star

30 December 2008, 18:00 PM

Iqbal Siddiquee, Sylhet

BNP stalwart M Saifur Rahman's defeat in both the seats in Sylhet and Moulvibazar was the talk of the town yesterday. Even many curious people from outside phoned their friends and relatives in Sylhet to know the causes for such a stunning result. Saifur lost the race in the two seats with big margins. He won Sylhet-1 only in 2001 and his home constituency Moulvibazar-3 several times. A number of BNP men said Saifur as well as his party suffered the setback due to the long-standing intra-party feud. Many party men had thought that four-party ticket for poll was uncertain for frontline reformist leader Saifur as he had taken over as acting chief of the party after 1/11 changes. But he managed things with Khaleda Zia. There are other reasons for his defeat in Moulvibazar-3, the seat he held for long, many in the city said yesterday. A leading businessman, Aminul Islam, at the city's Zindabazar area said, Saifur's becoming a frontline reformist after 1/11, failure to resolve intra- party feud, alleged sheltering of miscreants in the party and ignoring party men were the main reasons for his defeat. Besides, he failed to give befitting replies to allegations of corruption either against him or party leaders under his umbrella throughout Sylhet division. Three of Saifur's most trusted men and front ranking leaders --Sylhet city BNP chief Ariful Haque Chowdhury, Moulvibazar Pourashava chairman Foizul Haque Mayun and Habiganj Pourashava chairman GK Gous are utterly discredited, which dealt a heavy blow in the polls. Ariful Haque is in jail for corruption and the two others, caught after the 1/11 for alleged corruption, are on bail. Also, Saifur's son is serving a jail term for extortion. Some mid ranking BNP leaders, preferring not to be named, alleged that during the four-party rule, Saifur had always given importance to Jamat leaders instead of his party men. This kept so many party men away from him, they said. “We could never reach him, but things were too easy for Jamat men”, one BNP man said. “On the other hand, he never tried to keep his son Naser Rahman under control”, he added. Besides, Saifur failed to maintain normal relation among the partners of 4-party alliance. Rather, he provoked intra-party feud since the alliance took over in 2001. A good number of sincere and devoted BNP men had to remain far away as they were ignored by him, said a number of the members of the district BNP convening committee. All the three other party lawmakers in Sylhet deserted him just a year after the 2001 polls, they said. Most of the devoted party leaders and activists refrained from campaigning for BNP in Sylhet1, they admitted while talking to this correspondent. His defeat was just a reply to his indifference to party men, they said. In addition to his ill health, there was lack of coordination among alliance partners while weak and opportunist party men were around him ahead of the poll, they added.