BNP’s partners in its newly formed coalition have informed the Election Commission on Thursday (Nov 15) that their candidates will contest the Dec 30 election using ‘paddy sheaf’ as the polls logo.

After intense negotiations, Gano Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain launched the Jatiya Oikya Front with BNP and two other parties — ASM Abdur Rab’s Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) and Nagorik Oikya led by Mahmudur Rahman Manna in October.

On Nov 5, when the new alliance held its first rally in Dhaka after pervious rallies in Sylhet and Chattogram, Krishak Sramik Janata League President Kader Siddique announced that he was on board.

The Gano Forum initially informed the EC that its candidates will use their polls logo ‘rising sun’ but backed off on Thursday, when the alliance’s Steering Committee sat for a meeting at Dr Kamal’s Motijheel offices.

Emerging from the meeting, Manna announced before the media that the coalition has chosen the ‘paddy sheaf’ as its symbol to contest the 11th Parliamentary Election slated for Dec 30.

Later in the day, the Oika Front formally informed the decision to the EC.

All of the parties in the coalition are registered with the Election Commission (EC) except for Manna’s Nagorik Oikya.

The Commission has made it clear that the provision of using coalition partner’s polls logo only applies to registered parties, which means if Manna contests with ‘paddy sheaf’ and elected he will be representing the BNP in the 11th National Parliament.

Meanwhile, most of the parties in the 20-party Alliance led by the BNP have informed the Commission that their candidates will be using ‘paddy sheaf’.

However, BNP’s key ally the Jamaat-e-Islami, which recently lost its registration, has announced that its candidates will contest as independent aspirants.

It’s another ally Liberal Democratic Party led by Oli Ahmed has told the EC that some of its candidates will use their own logo ‘umbrella’ and others ‘paddy sheaf’.

The polls logo of Andaleeve Rahman-led Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) is ‘bullock cart’. However, when its chief contested the 2008 election as a BNP ally, he went for ‘paddy sheaf’ which will be the case this time as well.