BNP-backed Monirul Haque Sakku ended his tenure as mayor of Comilla City Corporation (COCC) on Monday.
He will be succeeded by CCC Chief Executive Officer Dr Shafiqul Islam, who will take charge as acting administrator today and function till the elections, scheduled for June 15.
The local administration issued a notification in this regard on May 11.
In 2012, Sakku contested as an independent candidate and defeated veteran Awami League leader Afzal Khan by over 35,000 votes in the first election to the city corporation.
In 2017, he won against Afzal Khan’s daughter Anjum Sultana Sima by a margin of around 11,000 votes.
On his last day in office, Sakku yesterday said that he had implemented 65% of his pledges about solving the problems of the city.
“I’ll complete the task if the voters elect me again. Otherwise, I’ll resume political activities,” he said at the COCC office.
Sakku had resigned from the post of joint secretary general of the Comilla district (south) unit BNP ahead of the 2012 elections.
Meanwhile, Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat has claimed that he knows nothing about his name being on the top of a list of patrons of drug smugglers of the district.
“I don’t know anything about this list…didn’t see it either,” he told Dhaka Tribune, in response to queries regarding the list, prepared by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2018.
“My leader and the party nominated me after considering my contributions. I believe the voters of Comilla will elect me,” said Rifat, who is the general secretary of the Comilla city unit Awami League.
Earlier, Rifat was summoned by the Election Commission on Sunday as he had attended a views exchange meeting of the party with lawmaker AKM Bahauddin Bahar in the chair.
The ruling party confirmed his nomination at a meeting with party President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair on Friday.
Following this, a section of local Awami League leaders and activists expressed resentment as Rifat had long been criticized within the party for his involvement with drug cartels and arms smugglers, and for tender manipulation and illegal extraction of sand from the Gumti River.