UNB, Narayanganj :
The Awami League’s Narayanganj mayoral election candidate Selina Hayat Ivy has declined Narayanganj-4 MP Shamim Osman’s offer of resigning from parliament to campaign and beg people to vote for her, if asked by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina or Ivy herself.
“Shamim Osman is a Member of Parliament. He will work for the people. Why would he resign from Parliament? I urge him to work for the people instead of campaigning for me,” she told local reporters upon hearing about the offer from Osman, while she was
campaigning in the Chasara area of the city in the evening.
As a sitting MP, Shamim Osman is barred from campaigning explicitly or throwing his weight behind any candidate in local body elections. There was some apprehension in AL ranks though, that the faction of the AL Narayanganj unit allied to the powerful Osman clan may refrain from fully supporting a candidate who has a history of challenging their leadership in the key commercial outpost just south of capital Dhaka.
In an effort to probably clear the air over the matter, Shamim Osman held a press conference on Friday afternoon, where he made his apparent overture to Ivy as the party’s candidate, driving home the point with his offer to even resign and campaign if asked to.
Ivy, running as an independent, defeated AL-backed Osman in a bitterly-fought contest in Narayanganj’s first mayoral election in 2011. The two have since engaged in a very public and acrimonious rivalry over laying claim to being the people’s champion in Narayanganj. Osman returned to Parliament in 2014.
Despite today’s developments, that may remain the best arrangement to keep the duo, who both have politics running through their blood, out of each other’s crosshairs.
The Awami League’s Narayanganj mayoral election candidate Selina Hayat Ivy has declined Narayanganj-4 MP Shamim Osman’s offer of resigning from parliament to campaign and beg people to vote for her, if asked by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina or Ivy herself.
“Shamim Osman is a Member of Parliament. He will work for the people. Why would he resign from Parliament? I urge him to work for the people instead of campaigning for me,” she told local reporters upon hearing about the offer from Osman, while she was
campaigning in the Chasara area of the city in the evening.
As a sitting MP, Shamim Osman is barred from campaigning explicitly or throwing his weight behind any candidate in local body elections. There was some apprehension in AL ranks though, that the faction of the AL Narayanganj unit allied to the powerful Osman clan may refrain from fully supporting a candidate who has a history of challenging their leadership in the key commercial outpost just south of capital Dhaka.
In an effort to probably clear the air over the matter, Shamim Osman held a press conference on Friday afternoon, where he made his apparent overture to Ivy as the party’s candidate, driving home the point with his offer to even resign and campaign if asked to.
Ivy, running as an independent, defeated AL-backed Osman in a bitterly-fought contest in Narayanganj’s first mayoral election in 2011. The two have since engaged in a very public and acrimonious rivalry over laying claim to being the people’s champion in Narayanganj. Osman returned to Parliament in 2014.
Despite today’s developments, that may remain the best arrangement to keep the duo, who both have politics running through their blood, out of each other’s crosshairs.
