BNP loses seats in UP polls due to factional conflict

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has lost seats in recent union council elections in Gomostapur upazila under the district due to factional conflict. Local sources said Awami Leage bagged six seats of chairman post while BNP got one seat and an independent candidate bagged one seat out of eight. The election was held on March 31. The sources said BNP rebel candidates had got more votes than the party nominated candidates. In Alinagar union, BNP nominated Israfil Haque as their candidate in the chairman post while Anwarul Islam, another BNP candidate fought the election as independent candidate in the post as he thought that he was deprived of the party.  Israfil got 2,848 votes and Anwarul got 2,687  votes. On the other hand, Awami League candidate won the election and he got 3,081 votes. There was no rival candidates of Awami League. In Banagbari, BNP candidate Shahidul Islam got 5,391 votes while BNP rebel candidate Monirul Islam earned 871 votes. Awami League candidate Md Saderul Islam bagged 6,958 votes and won the seat. In Radhanagr, BNP nominated candidate Moktarul Haque got 4,738 votes and its rebel candidate Matiur Rahman got 7,303 votes. Awami League candidate Mamunur Rashid was elected chairman after he got 10,857 votes. In Parbatipur, Iasin Ali from BNP vied the election and he got 5,909 votes. The rebel candidate of the party got 7,768 votes. Liakat Ali Khan from Awami League was elected chairman getting 7,944 votes. In Rahanpur, BNP candidate Golam Rabbani got 604 votes and its rebel candidate Moniruzzaman earned 4,964 votes. Awami League candidate Shah Jahan Ansari was elected chairman after he got 5,680 votes. The upazila unit BNP president Bahairul Islam said in the upazila, BNP had lost the seats as it had not nominated the candidates who had been working in root level and popular to the people. BNP vice-president Moazzem Hossain said the party had done a serious mistake depriving the root level candidates. Tareque Ahmed, Bahanpur municipality mayor and general secretary of BNP said there was stronghold of the party in the upazila. “In spite of having more votes, BNP had lost the seats in UP polls due to factional conflict,” he said.