At least five more candidates of the Jatiya Party (JaPa) have announced their withdrawal from the 12th national parliamentary election.
They are Abdul Mannan Talukdar of Sunamganj-1, Shankar Pal of Habiganj-2, Mahbub Alam of Dinajpur-2, Zahirul Islam of Tangail-7 and Samsuddin Khan from Gazipur-4.
After the election campaign started, 11 JaPa candidates announced their withdrawal from the polls. Some of them reported non-cooperation of party central leaders, doubts about fair elections, and pressure and threats.
Among them, Sunamganj-1 candidate Abdul Mannan Talukdar announced his withdrawal from the polls in a press conference at Jamalganj Press Club of Sunamganj on Tuesday.
Abdul Mannan Talukder, complaining of not getting cooperation from central leaders, said: "I clearly understand that this is an election of seat sharing and farce."
JaPa candidate for Habiganj-2 Shankar Pal announced his withdrawal from the polls through a video message on Tuesday.
Mahbub Alam, JaPa candidate for Dinajpur-2, announced his withdrawal from the polls, expressing doubts about how impartial the election would be.
He held a press conference at the Biral upazila Jatiya Party office in the afternoon and said: "I am sceptical about how impartial the polling, counting and declaration of results will be in particular."
JaPa candidate for Gazipur-4 Samsuddin Khan said the reason for him withdrawing from the election was “pressure and threats”.
He said in a press conference at Kapasia Press Club on Wednesday: "The current political situation in Bangladesh is chaotic. There are various pressures and threats on me.”
Tangail-7 (Mirzapur) candidate Zahirul Islam stood aside and supported independent candidate Mir Enayet Hossain. On Tuesday afternoon at a road rally, he said according to the decision of the upazila Jatiya Party, they will participate in the election campaign for the independent candidate of the Truck symbol.
Earlier, three more candidates of the party withdrew from the election after complaining of "farce, seat sharing and one-sidedness" regarding the election last Sunday. They are Iqbal Hossain of Barisal-2 and Barisal-5 constituencies, Khalilur Rahman of Barguna-1 constituency and MM Niaz Uddin of Gazipur-1 and Gazipur-5 constituencies.
Candidates of Natore-4 constituency Alauddin Mridha, Zakir Hossain of Sirajganj-3 constituency, and Chalauddin Khoka Molla of Narayanganj-4 constituency informed about their decision not to join the election.
In this election, JaPa had announced candidates for 265 seats. The party entered into an agreement with the Awami League in 26 of these seats, leading to the removal of Awami League candidates from these constituencies. In most of the remaining constituencies, JaPa's candidates have not been actively campaigning.
Notably, 11 candidates from 13 constituencies, with two candidates each in two constituencies, have withdrawn from the polls.
