Politics
MP Pankaj Debnath suspended from AL
Pankaj Debnath, the lawmaker of Barishal-4 P(Hizla-Mehendiganj), has been suspended from all posts of Awami League (AL) on charges of violating the party discipline.
In this regard, a letter signed by AL office secretary Biplob Barua was issued on Monday and later in the afternoon it was forwarded to the Barishal unit AL president Abul Hasnat Abdullah and general secretary Talukder Md Yunus.
When asked, lawmaker Pankaj Debnath said, “I received a letter concerning the matter from the central office. I have nothing to say at this moment.”
The letter reads, “As per the party constitution, AL executive committee has removed you from all AL posts including the advisory post of Barishal district unit AL, for violating the party rules and regulations. You are requested to submit your written explanation of the above-mentioned issue to the central AL office within the next 15 days.”
The Awami League said there is a longstanding feud between two factions of AL at Mehendiganj in Barishal. Centering the enmity, several people were murdered during the last Union Parishad (UP) elections.
Of the factions, one is led by Upazila AL president Maidul Islam and general secretary and pourashava mayor Kamal Khan with support from district AL while the other by MP Pankaj Debnath.
Sources said the followers of both groups hacked one another, storming into the emergency unit of the hospital at Mehendiganj on 28 August that left six leaders and activists wounded.
While the injured belonged to the group of Upazila AL president and secretary, the accused ones were the followers of Pankaj Debnath. Of the injured, four were taken to Barishal for better treatment.
District unit AL general secretary, Talukder Md Yunus, told that they received a letter over the expulsion of Pankaj Debnath from the party.
He said MP Pankaj took various kinds of ill attempts against local AL leaders in the last four years, including killing, repressing and implicating them in false cases, to divide the party at Mehendiganj in a bid to establish his supremacy.
In the context of these incidents, the central committee has come up with the decision, the general secretary added.
The ruling Awami League has selected former Bangladesh cricket captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza as its candidate for the upcoming 12th national parliamentary election from the Narail-2 constituency. This decision was announced by Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader during a press briefing on Sunday.
Despite competition from 23 other leaders vying for the Awami League’s nomination in the Narail-2 constituency, the party opted to retain the incumbent MP, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, for the upcoming election.
The Awami League has selected cricketer Shakib Al Hasan as their candidate for the Magura-1 constituency in the upcoming 12th parliamentary election. This marks Shakib’s debut in parliamentary elections, and he is renowned as the world’s best all-rounder in ODIs.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader unveiled the party’s 300 parliamentary seat nominees at the central office on Bangabandhu Avenue. Shakib Al Hasan had previously obtained three nomination forms to contest in the 12th parliamentary election, covering Magura-1, Magura-2, and Dhaka-10, with his relatives collecting the forms from the AL central office.
On Thursday, November 23, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina emphasized once again that both the BNP and Jamaat are attempting to disrupt the parliamentary elections set for January 7.
She issued a warning, stating that undesirable consequences would follow any attempts to sabotage the election, emphasizing the strength of her party lying in the people.
In her introductory speech at the Awami League’s Parliamentary Nomination Board meeting in Dhaka’s Tejgaon district office, Sheikh Hasina, also the president of the ruling Awami League, aimed to finalize the party’s candidates for the upcoming 12th parliamentary elections.
The meeting, which commenced at 10 am at the Dhaka district AL unit office in Tejgaon, focused on selecting candidates for Rajshahi, Khulna, and Rangpur divisions who aspire to represent the electoral symbol Boat in the upcoming national polls.
PM mentioned that the BNP-Jamaat alliance abstained from participating in the 2014 elections due to a lack of confidence in their potential success.
She also pointed out that despite attempts by BNP-Jamaat to criticize the 2018 elections, they failed to provide specific evidence of irregularities to substantiate their claims.
Expressing the Awami League’s commitment to democratic values, Sheikh Hasina asserted that political parties would be free to continue their activities in the country.
However, she recalled a lack of such freedom during BNP’s governance, noting that around 21,000 leaders and activists of the Awami League were killed across the country during that period.
