Awami League-backed mayoral candidate for Gazipur City Corporation Azmat Ullah Khan met Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman HM Ershad at his Baridhara residence Monday morning and sought his blessings for the upcoming election.
Azmat Ullah referred to the visit as “a courtesy meeting with a veteran leader of the ruling mega alliance” to journalists.
Meanwhile, JP sources told journalists that Ershad said party supporters in Gazipur had turned disloyal to him.
Though Ershad declined to clarify his support for any party running in the GCC elections, he termed Azmat “a good candidate.”
Awami League backed Azmat Ullah, former mayor of the now defunct Gazipur Municipality, and BNP-backed MA Mannan are two of the frontrunners of the Gazipur City Corporation polls scheduled for July 6.
Earlier, Dr Mazharul Alam, joint secretary of the Gazipur unit of BNP, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Jatya Party’s Joint Secretary Asad Siddiqui has supported BNP-backed candidate MA Mannan. Many local leaders and activists of Jatiya Party are campaigning in his favour.”
Nurul Islam, secretary of Gazipur district unit JP, said: “What BNP leader Mazharul Alam has said is true. We are campaigning in favour of Mannan and against Awami League.”
“Our party chairman [Ershad] told us to campaign in favour of Awami League candidate Azmat Ullah,” Nurul Islam said. He also said: “But we are very upset with the Awami League because of the way they behaved with us over the last five years. Our candidate has already withdrawn from the polls. So it is impossible for us to support the Awami League backed candidate.”
On Friday, Nurul said Jatiya Party would back Azmat according to the wishes of the party’s leaders. Nurul, however, declined to comment on the party’s sudden paradigm shift. JP had endorsed Mezbah Uddin Sarker as its candidate for the July 6 Gazipur polls, but after receiving his election symbol, he withdrew from the race.