The BNP has written to the Election Commission (EC) asking to allocate its ‘paddy sheaf’ logo to 26 candidates floated by its allies in the two coalitions for the Dec 30 national election.

The contestants are from the major opposition alliance Jatiya Oikya Front and 20-party Alliance, says the letter signed by Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Among the Oikya Front allies, seven Gano Forum candidates will contest with ‘paddy sheaf’ while four each from JSD (Rab) and Krishak Sramik Janata League.

The other ally in the newly-formed coalition, Mahmudur Rahman Manna’s Nagorik Oikya is an unregistered party, so it’s five candidates have no other option other than using BNP’s polls logo.

The EC has said that candidates fielded by unregistered parties, if elected, will be considered as MPs of the parties’ whose logo they used.

Meanwhile, in the 20-party Alliance, four Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidates are getting the BNP’s polls logo while three from Jamiat e Ulama e Islam Bangladesh, two from Khelafat Mojlish and one each from Bangladesh Kalyan Party and Jatiya Party (JP) led by Andaleeve Rahman.

Another 20 candidates, who are members of the now-banned Jamaat-e Islami, also will run under the BNP's polls logo.

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Jatiya Oikya Front

20-party Alliance