A short-sightedness in both Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leadership has led to overrating of former military ruler HM Ershad’s Jatiyo Party (JP), in the Gazipur city corporation elections.
JP along with some Islamic parties had bagged only 54,951 out of the total 1.3m votes in the four seats of Gazipur in the 2001 general elections.
The previous general elections show an increase in the number of people voting in favour of the Awami League and the BNP, but now the two biggest parties are seen squabbling to win the support from the deposed President’s party, which had received only 45,187 votes at Gazipur’s four seats in the 1991 general elections.
The JP had not fielded a candidate in any of the five seats in Gazipur during the ninth parliamentary polls in December 2008, rather they extended support towards the Awami League.
Most of the Jatiya Party leaders, who used to fetch votes for Ershad’s party, left and joined the BNP. For instance, Hasan Uddin Sarkar, who maintained a huge vote bank in the Tongi area, vied as a BNP candidate in the 2001 polls.
In the 8th parliamentary polls in 2001, the Jatiya Party did not field a single candidate in any of the five constituencies of Gazipur.
Rather, HM Ershad formed an alliance with some smaller Islamist parties, under the banner of Islami Jatiyo Front with Jatiyo Party’s Plough as the symbol. Similarly, Jamaat had supported the BNP candidates in all four seats in Gazipur.
The Jatiya Party-led front bagged only 54,951 votes.
Similarly, in the 9th parliamentary polls in 2008, both Jatiyo Party had no candidates, while and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami aligned with the BNP.
A renowned political analyst yesterday said, the Jatiyo Party cannot alone determine the results of the polls in Gazipur City Corporation, which comprises mainly Gazipur-1 and Gazipur-2 constituencies. A portion of Gazipur-3 constituency also falls under the newly created city corporation.
He said, the Jatiya Party would be proved “useless” if the BNP-led candidate won in the city polls.
In the 8th national elections in 2001, Ahsan Ullah of the Awami League was elected with 159,125 votes, defeating his nearest contender MA Mannan (independent), the current mayor candidate, with 87,691 votes in Gazipur-2 (Tongi-Gazipur).
The BNP’s Hasan Uddin Sarkar got 85,781 votes while Brigadier Kazi Mahmud Hasan of the Islami Jatiya Oikya Front (Jatiyo Party-led) got 38,200 votes.
In the 7th parliamentary polls in 1996, Jatiyo Party got a total of 150,769 votes in four seats.
Md Ahsan Ullah of the Awami League was elected MP of the Gazipur-2 (Tongi-Gazipur) constituency with 94,732 votes while his nearest contender Prof Abdul Mannan of the BNP got 79,168 votes.
Hasan Uddin Sarkar of Jatiya Party bagged 71,528 votes. It is mentionable that, Hasan Sarkar’s family is very influential in Tongi. He is now a member of the BNP.