Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has submitted a list of their 50 aspirants to BNP hoping to secure nominations from the 20-party-Alliance to contest the upcoming national polls.
On Saturday (Nov 17) a Jamaat delegation handed over the list to BNP standing committee members Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Nazrul Islam Khan, said a central executive panel member of the party who is familiar with the matter.
After losing the party’s registration with the Election Commission (EC), Jamaat moved to prepare for polls under the banner of the BNP-led Alliance. It initially collected nominations for 60 seats aiming to float the candidates independently. However, a list of 50 aspirants has been prepared from the 60 nomination seekers and handed over to the alliance’s leading party BNP.
With their proposal seeking to contest from the 50 constituencies, Jamaat has detailed overall scenarios of the seats to demonstrate to the alliance how they stand in those areas.
For each of the seats, they provided data including the number of voters, secured votes in past elections, possibilities and the support base of the BNP among other information.
A central executive panel member of Jamaat said that the details were added to help BNP make decisions easily.
Two influential Jamaat leaders said that they initially targeted 50 seats where they are keen to get their aspirants secure 20-party-Alliance’s nominations.
Jamaat’s Nayeb-e-Amir Professor Mia Ghulam Parwar told Bangla Tribune, “Our candidates have collected nominations from 60 seats according to the party’s decision. A list upon scrutiny was to be handed to the BNP. I’m not aware if it’s sent to them already.”
20-party Alliance Co-ordinator Nazrul Islam Khan was unavailable when contacted over the phone for comments on the matter.
On Saturday, a senior Jamaat leader met with BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who advised him to hand over the list to the BNP standing committee members.
Mirza Fakhrul told him that Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Nazrul Islam Khan is looking over issues related to alliance’s nominations for the polls.
With the 11th Parliamentary Polls slated for Dec 30, Jamaat is willing to compromise on their number of expected seats as the Alliance leader BNP is now in a bigger polls coalition, the Jatiya Oikya Front, according to a senior Jamaat leader.
However, Jamaat will bargain for more seats although it was unofficially assured around 18-20 seats.
The party would prefer somewhere around 30-35 seats, added the leader.
A Jamaat’s executive panel source said that their polls aspirants took nomination forms to contest independently with separate electoral symbols.
The party has been offered by the BNP to contest under their symbol paddy sheaf, he said before adding they are contemplating the possibility.
Jamaat leaders, however, has publicly said that their candidates will contest with independent symbols.
Decision on picking the electoral symbol will be discussed in the party forum, said one central leader of Jamaat.
In 2001 elections Jamaat won 31 seats under the banner of four-party Alliance among which one seat was contested under party banner. In 2008 it contested in four seats although the alliance cleared them for 39.
