69 MPs, including 3 cabinet members dropped
New faces include celebrities, young leaders
By dropping a total of 69 incumbent lawmakers, the ruling Awami League on Sunday announced names of 298 out of 300 of its candidates for 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election slated for January 7, 2024.
A total of 69 incumbent lawmakers have been dropped from the list of nominated persons.
Meanwhile, a large number of new faces, who have been selected as the party candidates include cricketers, film stars, singers and young leaders.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader announced the names of the party candidates at a press conference held at the party's Bangabandhu Avenue central office.
The party did not announce names of candidates for Kustia-2 and Narayanganj-5 constituencies.
According to the AL list, star cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is set to start a new career in politics as he got the ruling Awami League's ticket to run for parliament polls from Magura-1 constituency.
Former captain of Bangladesh Cricket Team Mashrafi-Bin-Murtaja has also been nominated for the second time for Narail-2 seat.
Besides, popular film actor Ferdous Ahmed was picked by the ruling party to vie for Dhaka-10 seat in the 12th JS polls with AL's electoral symbol of 'boat'.
Popular singer Mamtaj Begum, who is also a film actress, has been nominated for Manikganj-1 seat.
Among other new faces, Naimuzzaman Bhuiya Mukta, vice-president of Panchagarh district unit AL, has been nominated up for Panchagarh-1 seat, former Dhaka South City Mayor Sayeed Khokon
to run for Dhaka-6, AL presidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak for Dhaka-13 and AL Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim for Dhaka-8.
Another new face, Towhiduzzaman Tuhin, was picked for Jashore-2, dropping current lawmaker Nasir Uddin. Towhiduzzaman is a physician and son-in-law of veteran AL leader Tofail Ahmed.
Former Chhatra League acting president Shah E Alam and former Awami Swechhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Nath, current members of parliament, are among those have not been nominated.
The decisions were made by the AL Parliamentary Nomination Board at three separate meetings held from November 23 to November 25 with AL President Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Before the announcement of the party candidates, AL president Sheikh Hasina also held a views exchange meeting with all the aspirants at her Ganobhaban official residence on Sunday morning.