The election of Phulbari municipality of Dinajpur is scheduled to be held on December 28. With the municipal elections looming, elaborate analysis is going on in the locality as to who will be the next mayor.
Potential candidates of Awami League and BNP including two influential independent candidates have entered the field ahead of the upcoming Phulbari municipal elections.
From morning till night, they have started holding a public gathering, yard meeting with the voters. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, President of Upazila Juba League, the nominated candidate from the ruling Awami League, has entered the field to contest already.
Although the opposition party BNP has not nominated a candidate yet, Sahajul Islam, General Secretary of municipal BNP, is the only one who has entered the field as a possible candidate from the party.
Besides, two influential independent candidates, incumbent Mayor Murtuza Sarkar Manik and prominent businessman Mahmud Alam Liton are contesting for the mayoral post in the municipal elections while, half a hundred councilor candidates are contesting in 9 general wards and 3 reserved women councilor wards.
Awami League nominee Khwaja Moinuddin is the younger brother of Juba League president and Dinajpur-5 MP Advocate Mostafizur Rahman Fizer. Whereas, Independent candidate incumbent Mayor Murtuza Sarkar Manik was a Chhatra League leader and he won the municipal elections of 2011 and 2015 as an independent candidate.
On the other hand, although Sahajul Islam, the general secretary of municipal BNP is the most potential BNP candidate, Mahmud Alam Liton, a prominent businessman of the city, has entered the field to contest as an independent candidate. Liton's family is known in the area as an equally influential family involved in BNP politics.
Due to this uncertainties, their might be be a turn of table in the upcoming election. Awami League nominee Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti said that, people will elect him to continue the government's development trend. Similarly, the current mayor Murtuza Sarkar Manik talked about maintaining the continuity of victory in the municipal elections.
On the other hand, BNP's potential candidate Sahajul Islam said, ordinary voters will respond to the Awami League's misrule in the municipal elections, adding that he is taking part in the elections as part of a movement to save the people's right to vote.
However, independent candidate Mahmud Alam Liton is speaking differently. He says he wants to show the people the way to build a model municipality with the establishment of the rights and justice. He added that, he wanted to pave the way for building a modern model municipal city with long-term traffic congestion, water supply and good
governance.
Meanwhile, the concerned residents of the municipality said that the real picture of the election will be revealed as the election date nears. Only after the election it will be certain that, who will be in charge of the municipality in the coming days.