Campaigning in the Khulna City Corporation elections reached a climax on Wednesday, with high-ups of both ruling Awami League and main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party joining in the fray.
With only a day to go before electioneering ends at midnight Thursday, pledges and war of words by senior leaders of the two major parties intensified, as they tried their best to woo the voters.
AL advisory council members Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed on Wednesday joined ruling party backed mayoral candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque’s campaign. On the other hand, BNP senior leaders Tariqul Islam, Goyeshar Roy and Barkatullah Bulu campaigned in favour of opposition supported candidate Moniruzzaman Moni.
Tofail and Amu were seen seeking support for Khaleque at Helatola, Dakbungalow and Sir Iqbal Road in the city yesterday, while Tariqul and Goyeshar were busy at the New Market, Baiyetun Nur Market and KDA Prantik Market areas.
Addressing a meeting, Tofail said there was no alternative to re-electing Khaleque as the mayor to continue development of Khulna city.
“Khaleque took initiatives to remove the problem of water-logging, and evicted land-grabbers from the canal area. He also installed modern streetlights in the city,” Tofail said, adding that Khaleque needs the people’s mandate again to complete his unfinished work.
Tariqul, meanwhile, opined that Moni would be elected, if the elections take place in a free and fair manner. He also claimed that a move was on for vote rigging, and alleged use of black money and muscle power to influence the voters.
“Illegal firearms are yet to be recovered, and identified criminals have not been arrested. These might create obstacles for holding the elections peacefully,” the BNP leader said.
Responding to the opposition’s claims, Tofail said it was BNP’s “character” to raise allegation of vote rigging.
“Until the voting, they will continuously raise this allegation,” the AL leader said. “Under the present government, more than 6,000 national and local-level elections have been held, no one can raise any question about those polls,” Tofail said, hoping that the Khulna city polls would be held fairly.