The ruling Awami League has built up a strong hold in the Barisal-5 constituency area through extensive development activities since the party came to power.
Now the ruling party wants to retain the seat in the upcoming 12th parliamentary elections while BNP seems to be planning to regain the lost seat.
Situated on the bank of River Kirtankhola, the Barishal-5 constituency consists of 30 wards of Barisal City Corporation (BCC) and 10 unions of Sadar Upazila. This constituency is also called the headquarters of Southern zone's politics.
According to sources, ahead of the upcoming 12th National Parliamentary elections and also in order to retain this seat, many leaders of the Awami League are found to be busy lobbying with the party high ups. They are also busy in building a strong position among the grass root level party men as well.
On the other hand, leaders of BNP and other political parties are also building environment to win people’s heart to grab the parliamentary seat.
However, severe intra-party feud prevails among the leadership of both the Awami League and the BNP. These intra-party conflicts may change the scenario in future, said local political sources.
Col (Retd.) Zaheed Farooque Shamim is the present lawmaker from this (Barishal-5) constituency. He is also serving as the State Minister for Water Resources after he was elected as Member of Parliament for the first time from Barisal-5 Constituency in the last parliamentary election. He is a Vice President of Barisal District unit Awami League.
Being the present Member of Parliament and also a State Minister, he is the most potential among all other candidates from Awami League in this seat.
Besides, the names of former member of parliament ZebunnesaAfroz, former central leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League, BalaramPoddar, who is also a central member of Awami League and a former director of Janata and AgraniBank, acting general secretary of BangabandhuParishadMahbub Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikram, Railway Workers' League advisor and former Chhatra League leader Salahuddin Ripon and local Awami League leader and industrialist ArifinMollah are also on discussion.
On the other hand, several names are being discussed as the candidates from the BNP for the next general election to contest the Barishal-5 seat.
According to the result in the last election, Col (retd.) ZaheedFarooqueShamim with the 'Boat' symbol was elected in Barisal-5 seat with 2,15,080 votes while his nearest rival, BNP candidate, Mojibur Rahman Sarwar got only 31,362 votes.
On the other hand, among the BNP’s possible candidates, names of former member MP and former whip advocate Mojibur Rahman Sarwar, BNP central organising secretary and former MP Bilkis Jahan Shirin and former president of Barisal South District BNP EbayedulHaque Chan are being discussed among the party men.
According to BNP party sources, advocate Mujibur Rahman Sarwar is in a leading position among other BNP's candidates for the upcoming 12th National Assembly Elections.
But he has come under a lot of criticism for participating in the latest city corporation elections as a mayoral candidate. He has been accused of leaving the field in exchange for a secret deal with the ruling party candidate. Due to this complaint, he (Sarowar) had to lose the position of the president of Barishal Metropolitan BNP recently.
Moreover, CharmonaiPir's brother Mufti Syed Mohammad Faizul Karim coulc be a candidate from IslamiAndolan Bangladesh in Barisal-5 seat.
Besides, central leaders Iqbal Hossain Tapas and MohsinUl Islam Habul are in discussion as the Jatiya Party candidates. Barishal district unit President of BangladesherSomajtantrik Dal (BSD) Engineer Imran Habib Rumman might be a candidate from the party.
According to sources, the total number of voters in Barisal-5 (Sadar) constituency is 3,97,230 people. Among them 2, 00, 379 are males and 1 96,851 are. The number of polling centres this seat is 174.