BNP’s High-Profile Figures Left Out of Candidate Lineup
NN ONLINE:
As the 13th National Parliamentary Election approaches, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has released a preliminary list of probable candidates for 237 constituencies. Several senior figures have been left out of the initial rollout. Of the party’s 300 seats, BNP has yet to name candidates for 63 constituencies, with a substantial portion of those seats likely reserved for leaders from allied parties and coalition partners.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the preliminary candidate list on Monday, November 3, at a press conference at the BNP Chairperson’s political office in Gulshan.
Notably, the list omits several prominent leaders. Absent are Standing Committee members Nazrul Islam Khan and Begum Selima Rahman; Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi; Joint Secretary General Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel; newly appointed Joint Secretary General Humayun Kabir; and advisers to the BNP Chairperson, Abdus Salam, Moazzem Hossain Alal, and Aminur Rashid Yasin. Vice Chairman Asaduzzaman Ripon is also not included.
Barrister Rumin Farhana, a former member of the reserved seats in the 11th Parliament and BNP’s co-Secretary for International Affairs who was considered a potential candidate, is also missing from the list.
From Dhaka-10, former BNP candidates such as International Affairs Secretary Nasir Uddin Asim and Robiul Islam Robi have been left out. In Magura, Robiul Islam Noyon, secretary of the BNP’s Dhaka South City unit of Juba Dal who sought party nomination, was also excluded.
Additionally, several family members of senior BNP leaders were omitted. A party source indicated that BNP had previously decided not to nominate multiple candidates from the same family. Consequently, Salahuddin Ahmed’s wife Hasina Ahmed, Mirza Abbas’ wife Afroza Abbas, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku’s wife, and former MP Rumana Mahmud were not nominated.
However, in constituencies where senior BNP leaders had historically contested, nominations were sometimes granted to their children or spouses when incumbents had passed away.