AL picks Khalek, Jahangir for Khulna, Gazipur; BNP meets aspirants

Awami League has picked Talukdar Abdul Khalek and Jahangir Alam as the party's mayor candidates for Khulna and Gazipur city corporations. Leaders of Awami League and BNP leaders from both the districts flocked to Dhaka last night to meet their own parties' top brass and submit nominations. Almost two dozen Awami League and BNP leaders had been lobbying with central leaders in Dhaka, with 10 leaders each from both parties vying for mayoral nomination. Awami League's started interviewing the nomination aspirants from 6pm Sunday. Following that, they met with the Prime Minister and ruling party President Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban around 7pm. Awami League’s Local Government Nomination Board convened at Ganabhaban last night so that the board President Hasina, Secretary Obaidul Quader, and 21 others could finalize the nomination. After the meeting the board announced that it had picked Khalek and Jahangir as the party's candidates. They will also consider nominations for 190 councillor aspirants, for which a 16-member team will assist the board. The BNP leadership has also met with aspiring local politicians, but is yet to decide on nominees. From 5:30pm, BNP's nomination board started interviewing the party’s 10 mayoral aspirants at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office to choose its candidates for the Khulna and Gazipur city polls, reports UNB. The party may announce the names of its two chosen candidates for the two city polls in a day or two, BNP chairperson's media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan told reporters after the meeting. Khulna BNP President and former MP Nazrul Islam Manju told our Khulna correspondent that aspiring BNP leaders were in Dhaka as well. “A nomination board consisting of local leaders will determine the candidates for the councillor posts in Khulna later on,” he said. The board, comprising of the party’s Standing Committee members, started the interview with BNP’s Khulna city unit General Secretary Shafiqul Islam Mona, one of three mayoral aspirants for Khulna city polls. They also interviewed existing mayor Moniruzzaman Moni and Khulna city BNP president Nazrul Islam Monju. The board was also scheduled to interview seven party nomination aspirants for Gazipur city polls. Another local nomination board will determine the Gazipur councillor candidates later. A Standing Committee member said they were unlikely to give nominations to the existing mayors, both BNP leaders, of two cities. The central leader hinted that the nomination board may pick Hasanuddin Sarkar as BNP's mayoral candidate for Gazipur while Nazrul Islam Manju or Mona may be selected for Khulna. The Khulna and Gazipur city corporation elections are set to be held on May 15, with the last date of candidacy submission being April 12 and the last date for cancelling a nomination being April 23.