AL to take action against 'internal conflicts' after Rangpur city polls debacle

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader has said organisational steps will be taken soon against "some internal conflicts" that led the party-backed candidate in Rangpur City polls to lose the race by a large margin.

Talking to reporters at Secretariat on Thursday, he said, "There may be some problems there [Rangpur city Awami League] because the gap [between the number of votes secured by the party-backed candidate and the Jatiya Party's winning candidate] should not be this huge."

Seven candidates including the ruling Awami League-backed candidate Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia lost their security deposits after being defeated by Jatiya Party (JaPa) nominated candidate Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa with a big margin in the Rangpur City Corporation election held on 27 December.

Hosne Ara secured the fourth position with only 22,306 votes. 

Each mayoral candidate was required to have at least one-eighth (35,122 votes) of the total cast votes (2.8 lakh) to save their deposited Tk20,000 with the Election Commission, according to the city corporation election rules.

Quader said many had anticipated that the JaPa-backed candidate will secure the first position and the Awami League-backed candidate will be the runner-up. But that guess was overturned by the results and Hosne Ara lost her security deposit.

"Major organisational measures will be taken within a week regarding this matter. The final game, however, will be played in the next general elections," he said.

"We have done what we said in the last 11 years. Ershad (founder and former president of JaPa) has strong political influence in Rangpur. Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa (JaPa candidate) is also very popular there. We did not interfere in the polls," Quader said, adding: "Personally I believe that democracy has won in this case."

Speaking about the party's female mayoral candidate in Rangpur, Quader said, "Male leaders of the party do not want to accept women candidates. There is an opposing tone against female candidates within the party and outside the party. So, where will the women candidates go? Won't they stand up?"

Metro fares are reasonable

Obaidul Quader, who is also the road, transport and bridges minister, said the fares of metro rail are reasonable and within the reach of people.

"At least Tk20 has to be paid when people ride on rickshaws. In that sense, the fare of the metro rail is okay. There are differences between the metro rail of Dhaka and India's Kolkata. Our metro rail is better than those of Thailand and Indonesia," the minister said, adding that the rest of the work of MRT-6 (from Agargaon to Motijheel) will be completed within the next year.

"Besides, we will also start the work of MRT-1 and MRT-5 under the rule of the Awami League government. Both of these MRT lines will cover an area of 31km, among which 21km will be underground and 10km will be expressway," he said. 

Responding to a query about launching metro rail in Chattogram, Obaidul Quader said a feasibility study is being conducted in the port city to find out if the metro rail service can be launched there.