Centring the upcoming 12th national parliamentary election, a festive mood is observed among the candidates, leaders and activists of Mymensingh-1 constituency, comprising two bordering upazilas -- Haluaghat and Dhobaura.
Multiple candidates from both Awami League and BNP are in the race to get nominations from the parliamentary seat. They are also found busy lobbying with the senior and influential leaders of their respective parties.
According to the supporters from both the parties, the ruling Awami League wants to continue the winning streak of their party symbol boat in the next election while BNP wants to see rise in Awami League's intra-party feuds so their candidates have better chance of winning the polls.
There are groupings and intra-party conflicts in both the main political parties--Awami League and BNP which may cause trouble in finding the ‘right’ candidate to contest the polls.
The history shows, Awami League is in the power in this seat for 14 consecutive years. In the last 11 parliamentary elections since the independence of Bangladesh, Awami League candidate has won highest seven times, BNP candidate twice and Jatiya Party candidate also won twice from the seat.
According to local sources, existing Member of Parliament (MP) Jewel Areng is the main among all other possible candidates of the ruling Awami League in the next election.
Jewel Nongbak Arengh is the President of Haluaghat Upazila Awami League. His late father, a prominent tribal leader Promod Mankin, was a former state minister of the Awami League government.
Promod Mankin was elected MP for four times from Awami League. After his death in 2016, his son Jewel Areng was elected MP in the by-election. He (Jewel Areng) was again elected MP from Awami League in last 2018 election.
The present chairman of Dhobaura Upazila Parishad, Mahmudul Haque Sayem, has also expressed interests in getting nomination from the Awami League. Sayem's father, late Emdadul Haque Mukul, was a two-time MP from the Jatiya Party. Sayem joined Awami League from the Jatiya Party family.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's personal assistant Pratika Chicham's husband Ni-Shesh Drong also wants to become a candidate for this seat. Ni-Shesh Drong, who, mainly, is a bank official, is trying to become a candidate using his wife's identity and influence.
Besides, former upazila chairman Faruq Ahmed Khan is also trying to become a candidate from the Awami League.
Present lawmaker Jewel Areng said that he has largely developed road communication and infrastructure, including the bordering roads, Haluaghat-Nalitabari road and Phulpur-Haluaghat road. He also claimed that he worked to set up weight scale and constructed warehouse at the land port.
On the other hand, although BNP's central leaders highly criticied this government, the picture in the grassroots level is quite different. Local leaders, activists and supporters of BNP are eager to contest the election.
The BNP has many leaders, who are willing to become candidates in the seat from the party. BNP's central organising secretary Syed Imran Saleh Prince, businessman Salman Omar Rubel and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's adviser and former MP Afzal H Khan are among them.
In the last election, BNP at first nominated late Ali Asghar. Later it was changed to Salman Omar Rubel. But Rubel eventually fell out due to bank loan default. Later, Afzal H Khan, son of former Justice TH Khan, was nominated by the BNP.
The name of any significant candidate from Jatiya Party or any other party in this seat is not known yet.
Mymensingh-1 (Haluaghat-Dhobaura) consists of 19 unions under Haluaghat and Dhobaura upazilas and a municipality. The number of total voters of this seat is 4,88,790.
Among them 2,48,288 are male and 2,40,499 are female. The number of tribal voters in this seat is about 40 thousand. So the tribal voters usually are the main factors for the victory of any candidate in this seat.