Activists of the 18-party alliance successfully united, while the 14-party alliance was still divided as the Jubo League leader vowed to continue fighting against the Awami League leader for the mayoral post in the third Barisal City Corporation (BCC) election.
The ruling AL-led 14-party alliance on May 10 declared city AL president and outgoing Mayor Shawkat Hossain Hiron as their officially backed mayor candidate, under the banner of Sammilito Nagorik Parishad, for the 3rd BCC poll.
The opposition BNP-led 18-party alliance on May 20 announced Ahsan Habib Kamal, district BNP president and former mayor in-charge, as the BNP-led 18-party alliance backed Jatiyatabadi Nagorik Parishad candidate.
Ebaidul Huq Chan, former district BNP secretary and former president of the Barisal Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and Advocate Kamrul Ahsan Shahin, city BNP secretary and former public prosecutor, withdrew their nomination papers on May 26 afternoon.
On the other hand, Mahmudur Rahman Khan Mamun (known as Khan Mamun), joint convener of district Jubo League, remained in the race for the mayoral post.
Laskar Nurul Huq, secretary of district bar association and BCC election coordinator of 14-party alliance, claimed the alliance is jointly campaigning for Hiron for the mayoral post.
Mamun is alone without any support from the alliance, even his own organisation, and ignored the repeated call for withdrawal of his nomination paper by central JL and AL leaders like Omar Faruk, Bahauddin Nasim, Pankaj Devnath, Mahbubul Hanif, Mahubuddin Bir Bikram and Abul Hasanat Abdullah, said LN Huq.
“Vested groups from different corners are trying to spread rumours about my withdrawal from the election race. But if I had decided to abort the election race, it would have been declared and done before the last withdrawal date of May 26,” Mamun said.
Mamun said he withdrew his candidacy in the second BCC election as per request from the party, and had been campaigning for mayoral post for third BCC election since then, and will participate in the mayoral race.
BCC election coordinator and lawmaker Mojibor Rahman Sarwar, who is also the city BNP president and central organising secretary, said the ruling AL-led 14-party alliance announced elections in major city corporations to divert public attention from the restoration of the caretaker government, and get benefits for general election by capturing local government structures.
Although local government elections are not party based, they are still highly political and reflect public views, which may be why the 18-party alliance was able to successfully unite and back Kamal for the mayoral post, added Sarwar.
Insiders from the 18-party alliance said there have been triangular factions among Sarwar, Kamal and Chan for more than a decade.
Sarwar, the then district BNP president, was blamed for clutching absolute power as lawmaker by expelling and removing Chan from the district secretary seat and Kamal from the city president of the party, citing reasons that they competed against BNP-backed candidate Sharfuddin Santu in the second BCC poll held in August 2008.
Santu was defeated by a marginal difference of 588 votes to 14-party alliance candidate Shawkat Hossain Hiron, while Kamal received 26,416 votes and Chan 19,626.
However, Kamal in 2011 successfully re-entered the party and won the district (south) BNP president post, and Sarwar went on to take charge of a vital city BNP post, to clear the field for the MP candidate from divisional headquarters.
Chan successfully bargained to get the convener post of a five-member district (south) BNP convening committee, formed after Kamal’s resignation from the president post to get support and create unity among the alliance, sources said.