Disgruntled by the defeat in Gazipur City Corporation election, grassroots leaders of the ruling Awami League there have demanded resignation of Rahmat Ali and other leading lawmakers who failed to play due role in selecting candidates for the polls.
Hurling abuse at the party MPs, the angry leaders and activists on Tuesday demanded that party chief Sheikh Hasina take measures to repair the damage done to the Gazipur district unit of the party ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Leaders and activists of at least 10 unions vented their anger as they assembled at the office of Rahmat Ali at the parliament building. Rahmat was the president of Gazipur Awami League for 12 years (1984-1996).
“We came to know from the TV that Azmat Ullah Khan was our candidate. No one talked to us before selecting him. It was an army-style decision,” Shafiqul Islam Shafi, the joint convenor of Mirzapur union Awami League, told the Dhaka Tribune.
When they asked Rahmat about it he said: “I do not know how he [Azmat] was chosen.” His reply sparked angry reaction from the grassroots leaders.
“Why do you not resign when a senior leader like you have no voice?” said a union level leader.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Rahmat Ali confessed that the local leaders had put him in utter embarrassment.
“I told them it was the communist leaders [inside the Awami League] who pushed for Azmat knowing nothing about the picture of the grassroots,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Shafi said they had expressed their anger to Rahmat as they could not talk to the Gazipur district Awami League headed by lawmaker AKM Mozammel Hossain and Azmat Ullah Khan or other lawmakers elected from the district.
“Our duty is to let our leaders realise the situation in Gazipur. We lost the Gazipur city election not because of Hefazat, but for the poor organisation at the grassroots,” Selim Reza, the convenor of Bhawalgarh union unit of the Awami League, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said the local leaders rushed to meet Rahmat Ali as he always maintained close contact with party workers even at the lowest level.
“We cannot reach Sheikh Hasina; so, we went to him so he could convey our message to the prime minister,” said Reza.
In the July 6 election to the newly created Gazipur City Corporation, mayoral candidate Azmat Ullah Khan, also the general secretary of the Awami League district unit, lost to the BNP-backed candidate MA Mannan by a margin of more than 100,000 votes.
