'No expectations', no heartbreak for 22 parties as AL leaves seats for few

Twenty-two smaller parties, who had hoped that the Awami League (AL) would leave some seats for them to contest in, faced a heartbreak today.

The AL did not make any concessions for the smaller parties.

In its latest announcement, the AL gave up 26 seats for Jatiya Party, 3 for Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), 2 for Workers Party and one to the JP (Manju).

But the 22, which include some new ones who have already earned the nickname of king's parties, were afforded no wiggle room.

A small party, which gains prominence suddenly ahead of the election after being formed under patronisation of the government, is referred to as "King's Party" in Bangladesh politics.

While many of the parties weren't in any alliance with the AL, some of those in the 14-party alliance also did not get any seat concessions for the January 7 polls, boycotted by the BNP and some other opposition parties.  

The 22 parties include Tarikat Federation, Samyabadi Dal, Bangladesh Nationalist Front, Gono Forum, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh and the Ganatantri Party.

Some parties, which were not in the alliance, were quick to react.

The Zaker Party, which never won a seat ever in any election, had held out hopes for some seats left by the AL despite not being part of any alliance.

The party finally withdrew more than 200 candidates from the 221 they had nominated, citing an unfavorable environment for polls. 

"I will withdraw my nomination today. We have less than 10 candidates participating in the elections," Zaker Party Secretary General Shamim Haider told The Business Standard yesterday, the last day of withdrawing candidacy.

"We will keep the candidates in some seats and withdraw nominations of the others," he added.

Taimur Alam Khandaker, secretary general of Trinamool BNP, told TBS, "We were not part of the seat sharing. We want to win people's support. So, we did not discuss sharing seats with the AL."

He also said such a sharing of seats was not discussed with the AL.

Md Shahjahan, secretary general of Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM), told TBS, "We did not engage in any discussion about seat sharing.

"We are the only party who did not engage in these discussions. We are now waiting to see if the elections will be fair or not."

Bangladesh Tarikat Federation Joint Secretary General and Spokesperson Muhammad Ali Farooqui told TBS that they wanted five seats initially.

"Now what the prime minister and the coalition have done, they know better. We have not got any confirmation about any constituencies yet. In the last election, we got concession for two seats. We will now choose our own symbol [garland]. We finally have candidates for 42 seats."

Bangladesh Islami Front Chairman Maulana MA Matin said, "We are not in any seat-sharing. We will face the AL on our own in the elections."

Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP) Office Secretary Md Ibrahim Miah said, "A delegation from our party had a meeting with the prime minister. We were assured that there will be no rigging in the election. There was no talk about giving up seats for us.

"We will contest in 83 seats with our own symbol." 

The BSP, which is leading the nine-party Liberal Islamic Alliance, is contesting under the "Ektara" symbol. It is also the only party of the alliance which has a registration.

The party is led by Syed Saifuddin Ahmad, the nephew of Tarikat Federation's chief Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari. Both of them are contesting from Chattogram-2 seat.

Chairman of Islami Front Bangladesh Syed Bahadur Shah Mojaddedi said, "We did not get concessions in any seat. We just wanted the AL to leave out only my seat, Chandpur-5."

He also said the Islami Front will contest from the 40 seats, where they have already nominated candidates, with the party's own symbol.

Syed Bahadur Shah Mojaddedi contested from the Chandpur-5 seat in 2018 and received 3,572 seats. He will fight for the seat again this time.

National People's Party (NPP) Chairman Sheikh Salauddin Salu told TBS, "We have candidates in 132 seats. We are not considering withdrawal; we will observe the country's course of events. This time, we abstained from seat-sharing negotiations. We are participating in polls to establish the party."

Mentioning that he has withdrawn candidacy from Dhaka-18 and Thakurgaon-3 seats, Salauddin said, "Being the chairman of a party, if I do election and get only 5,000 votes, it will pose a challenge to our reputation."

Established in 2007 by former Jatiya Party leader Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu, the NPP first ran for the Jatiya Sangsad polls in 2008. Its 30 candidates garnered 10,348 votes or 345 on average in the polls. All of them lost and had their security deposits seized.

In the next national election in 2014, the party joined the BNP and other opposition parties in boycotting the polls.

In the 11th JS polls, the party returned with a revamped ambition. It nominated 81 candidates who received a total of 43,330 votes or on average 535 votes. All of them lost. In addition, the security deposits of all of the candidates were seized.

The Bangladesh Congress has fielded candidates for a total of 121 seats, but remains doubtful regarding the fairness of the upcoming national polls, saying it doesn't support the seat-sharing policy.

On Sunday, the party's Secretary General Mohammad Yarul Islam told TBS, "We are still in the electoral field. But worried about the fair environment of the election. "If the election bears resemblance to the allocation of a bread, it is only natural to feel a sense of apprehension towards it.

Talking to TBS, Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) President Abul Kalam Azad branded all the parties participating in the upcoming polls as "ruling party", saying that the parties joined the electoral race after sharing seats among themselves.

"Only we are contesting as an opposition party. We are neither in any alliance or grand alliance," he said, adding that BNF has fielded candidates for a total of 46 seats.