Local Awami League leaders in many upazilas have gone “rebel” from a sense of deprivation that has developed over the last five years.
That sense has not only prompted them to apply for nomination in the first place against their fellow party leaders in the upcoming upazila parishad polls, but in many areas not comply with senior party leaders’ effort to make sure that they do not run against the candidates that the party has backed.
Some grassroots Awami League leader said the local politicians had their own equations and since they had been deprived of the “cream of power,” “rarely listened to” and “ignored” over the last five years, they are refusing to pull out from contesting their party-mates.
“Why will they listen to us [central leaders]? We promised a lot in the last five years but could not give them anything,” an organising secretary of the party told the Dhaka Tribune.
The Awami League appointed seven of its senior most leaders as the chief of separate committees for the seven divisions tasked with making sure that local leaders do not run against each other in the upazila polls.
Despite efforts to convince, stern warnings and expulsions, the senior leadership has largely failed to ensure single candidate from the party ranks for every upazila.
Up until yesterday, the Awami League has expelled at least 50 of its local leaders, who flouted party decision to run for various posts, including the chairman, of many upazila parisahds.
Party Presidium Member and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, head of one of the seven committees, told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is a local body election. All things will not go the way we want them to. We are trying to convince the rebel candidates to remain inactive. If they do not listen to us, organisational steps will be taken against them.”
Although the party held a national council in 2012, most of the 73 organisational districts and upazilas of the party have not seen any council in many years.
As a result, not only is there little coordination at the local levels, the senior district and national level leaders have very little idea about the hopes and aspirations of the grassroots.
There are also allegations that Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam is never available – neither over phone nor in person – for the grassroots leaders.
A number of upazila chairman aspirants, who have not got the party backing, have told the Dhaka Tribune that since these are local elections, the party cannot interfere directly. As a result, many of them are not very concerned with organisational steps such as expulsion.
In Belabo upazila in Narsingdi, the senior leaders have managed to convince one of the “rebel” candidates named Shahidullah to pull out. But another rebel candidate Najrul Islam, a local Jubo League leader, has not pulled out. Incumbent Upazila Parishad Chairman Shamsher Zaman Bhuiyan got the party backing.
“The 1.5 lakh voters of Belabo are with me and I will contest the poll,” Nazrul said.
“I will prove that the party decision [to back Shamsher] is wrong,” he affirmed.
A rebel chairman aspirant of the Palash upazila parishad of the same district claimed that he had spent hundreds of thousands of taka to keep the party together; but the party did not choose him.
“In the 2009 upazila election, I listened to the centre’s decision and withdrew my candidature. How many times will I do it? As a politician, I have my expectations. I want to serve people by becoming their representative. If I pull out again, the people of my area will blame me.”
There are also examples where grassroots leaders have been aggrieved by the selection that the local lawmaker has made.
In Mirsarai of Chittagong, local lawmaker Engineer Mosharraf Hossain has chosen one Sheikh Ataur Rahman for party backing, a decision that outgoing UP Chairman Gias Uddin did not like.
“I have had conflicts with him [Engineer Mosharraf] in the past. That is why he chose another person ignoring the grassroots’ opinion [which is in my favour],” Gias claimed.
Mosharraf, however, claimed that the selection was made considering the grassroots’ opinion.
“We are trying our best to follow party chief’s [Sheikh Hasina] instruction. We are trying to convince the rebel candidates to pull out from the next phases of the elections. In other places, we are trying to make them inactive,” Mosharraf said.
