There are 74 candidates from minority communities who will contest in the 11th parliamentary election.
Among the candidates, 72 have been nominated by political parties while the other two are independent candidates.
A total of 1,841 candidates of different political parties will contest for 300 seats in the general election scheduled for December 30.
According to Election Commission, 1745 of the total 1841 candidates will take part under their respective party banners; while 96 will contest as independent candidates.
Awami League has nominated 18 candidates from the minority communities; the most such candidates nominated by any political party.
Among the Awami League nominated candidates only two are contesting the election for the first time. They are Awami League Cultural Secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil from Netrokona 3 and Manu Majumder from Netrokona 1 constituency.
Meanwhile, BNP has nominated seven candidates from minority communities while Gono Forum has nominated three such candidates.
The Gono Forum candidates are Subrata Chowdhury from Dhaka 6; Shanti Pada Ghosh from Moulvibazar 4, and Ujjal Bhowmik from Chittagong 13.
The left-wing political parties, together, have nominated more candidates from minority groups than the two major political parties.
Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) has nominated only 74 candidates, nationwide, who will contest the election using the sickle symbol. Among them, 14 candidates belong to minority communities.
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Socialist Party of Bangladesh also selected 11 candidates from minority groups; out of its total 45 candidates.
Additionally: Jatiya Party picked three; Bangladesh National Awami Party, three; National People’s Party, two; Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, one; Zaker Party, one; Ganotantri Party, one; Progatishil Ganatantrik Dal, one; Biplabi Workers, three; Bangladesh Nationalist Front, two; and Bangladesh Workers Party, one minority community candidate.
Awami League nominated 17 candidates from minority communities during the 10th general election held on January 5, 2014.
There were 14 MPs elected from the minority communities, in the 9th parliamentary election held in 2008; whereas only eight became MPs in the 8th the parliamentary election.
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, also known as the Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad, leaders have urged several times that candidates from minority communities be nominated as per the voters’ ratio.
They also demanded 60 seats be reserved for minority communities in the parliament; as it is done for women.
Rana Dasgupta, secretary general of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council told the Dhaka Tribune: “This time political parties, especially the left-wing political parties, nominated more candidates from minority communities than previous years.”
He said: “Nominating more candidates from minority communities is a positive thing.”
