BNP’s long-time ally Jamaat-e-Islami had pressured it for getting the party’s ‘paddy sheaf’ for the candidates fielded in the 11th National Election, according to people familiar with the matter.
Several BNP leaders, who were involved in the seat-sharing negotiations ahead of the Dec 30 polls, said that the delay in finalising the candidates were not due to the number of seats but rather for the polls logo.
Altogether 298 candidates from the BNP and its allies contested in the election with its paddy sheaf logo.
The candidates with paddy sheaf include 242 from the BNP. Seventeen seats were left for the candidates with paddy sheaf from its other allies than the Jamaat in the 20-Party coalition.
A total of 22 Jamaat candidates used the BNP’s name and the paddy sheaf logo as it lost registration with the Election Commission while three members of the party ran as independent candidates.
Another 19 candidates from allies in the Jatiya Oikya Front contested with paddy sheaf— seven are from the Gano Forum, and four each from the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, the Nagorik Oikya, and the Krishak Sramik Janata League.
The opposition alliance won a meager eight seats — six bagged by BNP while the remaining two by Gano Forum.
According to highly-placed sources in the BNP, Jamaat had threatened to contest in 128 seats with independent candidates, if its members were not given the paddy sheaf logo.
Senior Jamaat leaders, however, described the claims as ‘absurd’.
Several members of its Central Executive Committee alleged the BNP of “creating complicacies” over polls logo. They blame the BNP for the delays in finalizing the nominations.
According to a Jamaat Central Executive Committee member that the BNP handed them a list of 25 candidates after Nov 29 midnight before confirming on Dec 9 that 22 Jamaat members will be given the paddy sheaf logo.
The remaining three Jamaat members contested as independent candidates.
“All allies in the 20-party Alliance and the Jatiya Oikya Front contested with paddy sheaf logo,” said Jamaat leader Ehsan Mahbub Zubair before dismissing allegations of pressuring the BNP.
“It’s totally untrue as we had prepared two sets of candidates— one with paddy sheaf logo and the other as independent aspirants. The decision to contest with BNP’s polls logo was based on the coalition’s advice,” Zubair, who sits on the central executive committee, told Bangla Tribune.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as well as National Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, who serves as the coordinator of 20-party Alliance could not be reached for a comment.
Bangla Tribune reached Khan’s colleague in the Standing Committee Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, but he declined to comment on the matter.
Jamiruddin Sircar, who is also on the BNP’s policymaking forum, told Bangla Tribune, “As far as I know, there has been no pressure from the Jamaat over the polls logo.”
But a senior member of the same forum said it’s “not unusual” for Jamaat to pressure.
“I have no specific information on it. But it may happen. It’s only natural of Jamaat, given their attitude, to threaten to float its members of independent candidates unless their given paddy sheaf logo.”
On Nov 18 last year, Jamaat opened its seat-sharing negotiations with the BNP-led alliance by forwarding a list of 50 candidates. Its Mia Golam Parwar, a Nayeb-e-Ameer of Jamaat, then told Bangla Tribune that they have been asked to “mull on the issue of polls logo”.
Sources in the Jammat confirmed that the party was decided on floating its member as independent candidate and would later withdraw after the seat-sharing negotiations closed. But it backed off as the BNP advised them to use it paddy sheaf logo.