After AL’s Ajmat, BNP’s Mannan gets his ‘blessings’
All of a sudden, Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad has emerged as the kingmaker at the Gazipur City Corporation polls as both mayoral aspirants have rushed to him for his blessings and support.
MA Mannan, who is backed by the BNP-led opposition alliance, visited Ershad yesterday, a day after his rival Ajmat Ullah Khan met the former military ruler.
Emerging from around an hour-long meeting at the JP leader’s Baridhara residence, Mannan told reporters, “I came here to seek his [Ershad’s] blessings.”
Terming the ex-dictator a political mentor, he said “He [Ershad] blessed me and assured me of his party’s cooperation in the polls.”
Mannan’s claim is quite confusing. Ershad reportedly had told Ajmat the day before that the Jatiya Party would back neither of the two mayoral aspirants as it was a local government election.
Ajmat Ullah, however, earned Ershad’s blessings but he did not claim to have got the JP leader’s support in the Gazipur polls.
It was not possible to check the authenticity of Mannan’s claim as his meeting with Ershad was one-to-one.
The Daily Star made several phone calls to Ershad’s personal mobile numbers as well as his political secretary Sunil Shuvo Roy. Ershad did not receive the phone while Sunil’s phone was found switched off.
In the battle of ballots in Gazipur city, Ershad is suddenly being regarded as an important factor, apart from some others, after the withdrawal of his party’s local leader from the electoral race.
The ruling AL high command had expected that the Jatiya Party, a key component of the AL-led grand alliance, would extend its support to Ajmat in the race against Mannan.
But things took an opposite turn as Ershad did not issue any directive to party leaders and supporters in Gazipur asking them to work for Ajmat. He recently on several occasions had warned the AL that he might quit the grand alliance.
Local leaders of Gazipur district and city units of Jatiya Party have been divided over backing Ajmat and Mannan. Some have been campaigning for Mannan and some for Ajmat.
The AL is desperate for the Jatiya Party’s full support at the Gazipur election, which is being considered a “matter of prestige” for the government after the whitewash defeat of AL favourites at the June 15 polls to four city corporations.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a meeting with Ershad in her parliament office on June 27 sought the JP’s support for Ajmat. But Ershad remained silent.
Against this backdrop, Ajmat along with some leaders of Gazipur AL and JP went to Ershad’s Baridhara residence on Monday.
JP Gazipur district president Brig Gen (retd) Kazi Mahmud Hassan was set to contest the July 6 mayoral polls. But he withdrew his candidacy on June 17.
“Withdrawal of my candidacy, on instructions of the party’s high ups, created anger among our grassroots level leaders and activists. Many of our activists are joining hands with BNP-backed mayoral candidate MA Mannan,” Kazi told The Daily Star on Monday.
He claimed that around 20 to 30 percent of the total voters, who migrated from the north, were supporters of Ershad. “Besides, the JP has good organisational strength in Gazipur.”
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday at around 8:30pm, the Jatiya Party’s Gazipur district General Secretary Nurul Islam said, “Till now, we do not have any instruction from the party’s central high command. But we have already started campaign on behalf of Mannan.”
“I attended a press conference today [yesterday] at Chourastha where Mannan and other local and central leaders of the BNP were present. I have openly announced our support there,” he said.
“If our party Chairman HM Ershad made an announcement of formal support to Mannan, it will be better for our campaign,” he said, adding, “Our district unit president Kazi Mahmud Hassan has agreed with the decision of supporting Mannan.”
Source: The Daily Star
