Himu's Window

Published On: 2008-10-26 Prof Abdul Khaleque(left) and Fazle Hossain Badsha (right) AL men demand party candidate in Rajshahi-2 Workers' Party Politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha is facing strong opposition again from local Awami League leaders in getting 14-party alliance nomination for Rajshahi-2 constituency though he quit the mayoral race in AL's favour on promise of alliance ticket in Jatiya Sangsad election.AL leaders and activists close to Rajshahi mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton are now speaking out against Badsha's nomination from Rajshahi-2 comprising Rajshahi Sadar and Paba upazilas. They argue that Badsha did not work for Liton in the mayoral polls. They said Badsha will not get support of AL leaders and activists even if he is chosen ignoring their demand for an AL candidate.The Rajshahi Citizens' Committee, floated ahead of August 4 mayoral election to campaign for Liton, has also backed out from its promise that it would support Badsha in JS election on t

Delimitation of constituencies has raised the number of Jatiya Sangsad seats in Rajshahi to six from five and changed areas of three of them, making local Awami League leaders hopeful of making a dent in BNP-Jamaat strongholds in the upcoming election. BNP and BNP-Jamaat coalition candidates had bagged all the five JS seats in last three Jatiya Sangsad polls. The new delimitation has divided vote banks of the alliance partners, political circles said. However, increase in the number of constituencies has made grassroots activists of all parties happy. They think this would help create new leaders as there would be one more candidate from each party. Following the delimitation, Paba upazila has been sliced off from Rajshahi-2, the area of former Rajshahi mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu. Rajshahi-2 now comprises only Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) areas. Paba has been added to Rajshahi-3, which now comprises Paba and Mohonpur. BNP leader Abu Hena was elected from the seat in last electio

RMP gets list from police headquarters for vigilance and action to hold peaceful election   Police have prepared a list of 36 terror-suspects including some ward councilors and politicians in Rajshahi city as they might pose threats to holding of the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad elections peacefully. The police headquarters prepared the list following field level intelligence reports and sent it to Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) for keeping vigilance on them, highly placed sources in RMP said. According to the sources, the list includes names of six newly elected ward councilors of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), three former ward councilors and five persons belonging to Awami League (AL) and BNP. The listed persons might hamper the JS elections by abetting use of illegal arms, musclemen and money, the sources said quoting the intelligence reports and analysis of their previous criminal records. The police headquarters have directed RMP authorities to take legal action

Published On: 2008-10-09 National An unidentified caller yesterday gave a death threat to a probable candidate in the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election from Rajshahi-5 (Charghat and Bagha) constituency. Former lawmaker and Charghat Awami League (AL) general secretary Raihanul Haque who got the threat said the caller threatened him to kill if he seeks party nomination to run in JS election. Later, he lodged a general diary (GD) in this connection with local police station. When contacted, Charghat Police Station officer-in-charge SM Bazlur Rashid confirmed the incident saying police have started an investigation. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=57874

Anwar Ali, Rajshahi With the Jatiya Sangsad elections drawing nearer, potential candidates from major parties have geared up their electioneering in all the five constituencies in Rajshahi city. Some of the candidates have started campaigning at villages while some are holding press conferences to express their willingness to join the political fray and others are greeting people pasting posters on the city walls. Most of the possible candidates started campaigning during Ramadan and they intensified their daily activities of meeting people taking opportunity of the two major festivals -- Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja. The electioneering shows that Awami League-led 14-party combine is in the lead position though it has been facing intra-party rivalry to some extent while BNP-led four-party alliance is yet to be prepared without any leader or office to guide them. Workers' Party politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha has started meeting people expressing his desire to par

  Anwar Ali, Rajshahi Leaders of Awami league and BNP in Rajshahi are worried that they may face a 'risk of impending intra-party rift' by approving candidature of party men in the planned upazila election. They apprehend that grassroots leaders who will not get party nod in upazila elections may work against them in general election. The situation is worst for BNP. Party leaders in many northern districts are already witnessing splits in the party while the gap between BNP and its ally Jamaat is widening. "We are against holding of upazila election before national polls as it will create manifold problems in country's politics that is already in crisis", said Azizur Rahman, president of Rajshahi BNP. He, however, admitted that many BNP leaders have expressed opinions for contesting the upazila election. "They are taking their own decisions as we are against the polls". Some Awami League bigwigs said, rift in the party has already started