BNP leader Abdus Salam has collected nomination form for contesting the mayoral race in the upcoming Dhaka South City Corporation polls.
Monirul Islam, personal secretary to former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, collected the papers in the afternoon on behalf of Salam from the Dhaka south election office set up at the Mohanagar Natya Mancha in Gulistan.
However, like many other BNP leaders, Salam is also currently on the run to avoid arrest in the ongoing security crackdown.
Salam, currently finance secretary of BNP's central committee, served as a deputy mayor of Dhaka during HM Ershad's 1980s regime.
A freedom fighter, he was also the member secretary of the immediate past Dhaka city unit BNP of which Khoka was the chief.
The BNP has been enforcing a countrywide transport blockade and spates of hartal since the first week of January after its chief Khaleda Zia had been barred from attending a rally marking the anniversary of the January 5, 2014 elections, which the party had boycotted.
At least 129 people have so far been killed in street violence – mainly arson attack on crowded buses and trucks and blasting of crude bombs – since the action programmes began.
In February, the Awami League-led government made the first moves for holding the long overdue polls to the two city corporations in Dhaka and also to that in Chittagong.
Over the last week or so, the BNP has been gradually making intentions clear about backing candidates for the non-partisan polls.
On Tuesday evening, a number of pro-BNP intellectuals and professionals held a meeting in Dhaka discussing their next course of action in case the party decided to address the polls.
Yesterday afternoon, a delegation of “Shoto Nagorik” (meaning hundred citizens) a platform of pro-BNP intellectuals and professionals, requested the Election Commission to ensure a level-playing field for the polls.
There have speculations that former Dhaka mayor and BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas could get the party's blessings to take part in the mayoral race in Dhaka south.
The BNP has more or less finalised that it would back businessman Abdul Awal Mintoo for the mayor of Dhaka north.
