Staff Reporter :With hardly three days left for the elections of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), campaign by the candidates for the posts of mayor and councillor has reached its peak.The campaign by both ruling Awami League and opposition BNP-blessed mayor and councillor candidates in DNCC and DSCC already gained momentum on Friday as the ban on electioneering will come into force from midnight tomorrow (Sunday), 48 hours before the voting. AL-backed mayor aspirant in DSCC Sayeed Khokan along with party leaders on Friday offered Juma prayers at Baitul Mokarram National Mosque and sought blessings from the devotees while BNP-backed candidate Mirza Abbas’ wife Afroza Abbas began her campaign from Dhanmondi and Hazaribag areas. As part of electioneering in DNCC, AL backed Annisul Huq took part in a discussion at Milestone College in Uttara while BNP-backed candidate Tabith Awal conducted campaign in Mohakhali’s Health Directorate and Nabisco areas. He was supposed to offer Juma prayers at a mosque in Tejgaon area. But he was allegedly barred from entering the mosque since the State Minister for Home Affairs would say his prayers there. Meanwhile, central leaders of both the ruling AL and opposition BNP are now passing their very busy time seeking votes from the electorates in favour of their respective mayor and councillor candidates in the DSCC and DNCC polls. Posters, banners and festoons on the one hand and meetings, sittings as well as fiery speeches on the other have changed the scenario in all the wards.After offering Juma prayers, Sayeed Khokan, in his electoral pledge, said he would always remain beside the city dwellers. “I’m also giving commitment that if I’m elected I will do everything to beautify and develop this National Mosque,” he told the devotees.He said that his father had worked for the development of Dhaka City Corporation and now he wants to develop the DSCC. Earlier in the morning, he along with party leaders took part in the mass contact in New Market area where he promised to free the city dwellers from traffic jam.BNP-backed candidate Mirza Abbas’ wife Afroza Abbas, during her campaign, alleged that the government wants to keep BNP out of polls race.”I’m passing very busy days and I’m confident that Mirza Abbas will win the poll,” she told reporters. Annisul Huq, candidate for the mayoral post in DNCC, in his electoral pledges, said that as a ruling party-backed candidate if he wins he would get enough support for doing better. Referring to the attack on BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s motorcade he demanded exemplary punishment to the offenders. “I don’t know who launched the attack on Khaleda Zia’s motorcade. But I’m demanding the punishment of the attackers,” he told journalists replying to a query.When asked about army deployment Annisul Huq said he has requested the Election Commission to take all out measures to ensure free, fair and impartial elections. Abdullah Al Harun Sohel, in-charge of Media Coordination of BNP-backed DNCC mayor candidate Tabith Awal, said Tabith Awal was supposed to offer Juma prayers in Rahim Metal Jam-e-Masjid after campaigning in Mohakhali’s Health Directorate and Nabisco areas. “He (Tabith) went there to say prayers but police said the State Minister for Home Affairs would be coming to say prayers there. So, he should go to another mosque,” Sohel said. Tabith later prayed at a mosque in Nakhalpara, Sohel claimed and said, “I knew that a mosque is a place where everyone can come together. But a rift has been created there, too.” However, Officer-in-Charge of Tejgaon police Md Salauddin trashed the allegation, saying that the State Minister had not been to that mosque at all and offered Juma prayers in the Begunbari Siddique Masjid Dhal. He also said that Tabith Awal had not gone to the Rahim Metal mosque but prayed at a Nakhalpara mosque.
