Internal feuds within the city and district units of Awami League, Talukder Khaleque’s misbehaviour and government’s failure to meet citizen’s demands were the main reasons behind outgoing mayor and AL-backed candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque’s failure. In this city polls, national issues dominated the local issues.
Despite having done a lot of development in Khulna city, Khaleque, who has never been defeated in any election, lost by a large margin of 60,000 votes to BNP-backed candidate Moniruzzaman Moni.
Conflict between Khulna city AL president Khaleque and city general secretary Mizanur Rahman had an impact on the results.
Followers of Mizan say Khaleque’s non-cooperation was the reason of Mizan’s defeat in last general election in 2008.
Moreover AL district general secretary and former MP Mostofa Rashidi Suja’s followers are also unhappy with Khaleque. They were not seen working in Khaleques’ campaign.
Last moment religious propaganda by Islamist parties also went against the outgoing mayor. According to local people’s observation, Islamist parties’ and organisations’ campaign against the government persuaded the voters to go against Khaleque.
In Khulna, Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam have a strong base and the supporters of these two organisations took firm stand against the AL candidate and contributed to Moni’s campaign. On the other hand ruling allies were not seen at Khaleque’s campaign. Ruling ally Jatiya Party contested the polls.
Khulna Sadar upazila is basically a BNP stronghold and there are many followers of former Muslim League leader Khan A Sabur.
Although the government has reopened several jute mills in the industrial belt, winning popularity with its mill worker residents, Khaleque failed to make a big difference in the area.
All factions of Khulna city BNP joined Moni’s campaign despite internal conflicts. Khulna-2 constituency MP Nazrul Islam Manju’s popularity played a big role in Moni’s victory.
About 10,000 workers of Dada Match Factory in the Rupsha Industrial belt, which the government failed to reopen, apparently went against Khaleque.
Moni’s clean image also went in his favour.
