UNB, Gazipur :
With not many days remaining for the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) polls, all the mayoral, councilor candidates and women candidates for reserve seats are already in the field for seeking public votes.
They are all pledging a green and planned city devoid of traffic jams, smooth roads for navigation and access to utilities for all.
Allegations are already being thrown against each other by candidates of Awami League and BNP, such as filing false cases against the opposition for unwanted harassment. A bigger allegation is surfacing against both the parties, stating that their party’s central leaders are electioneering on behalf of their party’s candidate.
AL candidate Jahangir Alam visited Kashimpur Bazar area on Tuesday for electioneering, where he told reporters that his opposition is trying to compromise his party’s position with all the unnecessary cases, citing that they had even filed cases against him back when AL leader Ahsanullah Master was killed. He urged everyone to keep calm and not to incite any untoward incident ahead of the election. Meanwhile, BNP mayoral candidate Hasan Uddin commenced electioneering by visiting ward no. 34, where he expressed anxiety over a fair election. He also said that they will not tolerate it if the administration or the police try to intimidate or harass his party’s workers. He added that his rival AL candidate is promising too many things which he cannot deliver, such as trying to show national projects such as the double rail-line project and the BRT project, as local government projects he would undertake. Hasan also demanded army deployment ahead of the polls.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, campaigning on behalf of his party’s candidate, said that it would be wrong to consider Gazipur and Khulna as the same. He added that the people of Gazipur will rewrite history by voting for his party’s candidate.
Five other GCC mayoral candidates are – Md Ruhul Amin of Communist Party of Bangladesh, Md Jalal Uddin of Bangladesh Islami Front, Fazlul Haque Minar of Islami Oikkya Jote, Md Nasir Uddin of Islami Andolan Bangladesh and independent candidate Farid Ahmed. A total of 11 lakh voters are expected to cast their vote in the upcoming polls of 57 general ward councilors and 19 reserve women seat. Earlier, the GCC polls were scheduled to be held on May 15, while the High Court stayed it. Later, the Appellate Division reviewed the High Court order and asked the Election Commission to hold the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) Election within June 28.
