29 Seek BNP Nomination to Contest By-Polls

Twenty-nine BNP aspirants are in the final race to get party ticket to contest in the upcoming by-polls to 4 parliamentary seats in Dhaka, Naogaon and Sirajganj.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Friday said a total of 29 BNP leaders submitted nomination forms at their party's central office aiming to be nominated as the candidates of ''Sheaf of Paddy'' in the four by-polls.

Of them, 22 aspirants bought the party nomination papers on Thursday while six others on Friday.

A total of 6 BNP aspirants submitted nomination forms for contesting the Dhaka-5 seat while nine each for Dhaka-18 and Naogaon- 6 and f5 for Sirajganj-1 by-elections.

Rizvi said BNP's nomination board will take interviews of the nomination seekers on Saturday evening at BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan and pick four candidates.

As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the by-polls to Dhaka-5 and Naogaon-6 will be held on October 17 next.

The EC, however, still did not announce the schedule for Dhaka-18 and Sirajganj-1 by-polls.

Dhaka-5, Dhaka-18, Naogaon-6 and Sirajganj-1 constituencies fell vacant following the death of Awami League MPs Habibur Rahman Molla, Sahara Khatun, Israfil Alam and Mohammad Nasim respectively.

Earlier on August 31 last, the party picked Habibur Rahman Habib, a member of the party chairperson’s advisory council, as its candidate to contest the Pabna-4 by-election billed for September 26.