A record number of Bangladeshi-born candidates have won in their bid for council seats all over the United Kingdom. According to the latest reports, over 50 of them have been declared victors, while several major candidates have shockingly lost.
In the Tower Hamlets council, a locality densely populated by Bangladeshi immigrants, over a hundred Bangladeshi-born candidates contested for 45 seats. Among them, 24 won, all but one of them from Labour Party.
The council elections saw two new political parties take part and concede a humiliating defeat as only one councillor was elected from their ranks.
Ohid Ahmed ran for mayor and councillor of Lensbury. Although he received well over 11,000 votes for his mayoral bid, he lost the council seat by a mere 400 votes.
Dr Anwara Ali ran for the council seat and mayoralty for Spitalfield and Banglatown from the Conservative Party. While she got around 6,000 votes as mayor, a paltry 276 votes for her council campaign came as a surprise. One of her opponents, KM Abu Taher Chowdhury, the candidate from the Aspire Party, received 776 votes. The current councillor, Suluk Ahmed, also conceded defeat after securing just 785 votes.
This article was first published on banglatribune.com