Ershad influencing Rangpur polls holding office of profit: Fakhrul

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accused on Monday Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad of influencing the Rangpur City Corporation polls despite being the PM's adviser, reports UNB.
"You've a chhawal (son) of Rangpur who is now staying here. He (Ershad) did nothing for Rangpur. He's now working together with fascist Awami League government forging an alliance with it," he said.
Addressing a wayside rally at CO Bazar, the BNP leader further said, "He came here with me in the same flight carrying the [national] flag. He took the flag making the alliance with the government which is killing our sons. We won't make any compromise with them."
While Fakhrul was addressing the rally, Ershad in a vehicle flying the national flag with police protocol crossed the CO (Circle Officer) Bazar road towards the city, witnesses said.
According to City Corporation (Election Code of Conduct) Rules 2016, very important persons who are holding the office of profit, including Prime Minister, Speaker, Ministers, Chief Whip, Deputy Speaker, Opposition Leader, Parliament's Deputy Leader, State Minister, Whips, MPs or persons holding equivalent posts can't take part in electioneering. But they can cast their votes if they remain voter of the election area.
Rangpur City Corporation goes to polls on December 21 while the curtain on the election campaign falls on Tuesday midnight.
Outgoing mayor Sarfuddin Ahmed is contesting the election to retain his mayoral position with Awami League ticket while Kausar Zaman Babla and Mostafizur Rahman Mostaf with BNP and Jatiya Party tickets respectively.
Reaching Rangpur around 1:00 pm, Fakhrul started electioneering in favour of Babla at CO Bazar. He distributed leaflets of Babla to people of all walks of life there and later addressed the wayside rally.
He called upon people of Rangpur to cast their votes for Babla maintaining discipline and rules without responding to any provocation.
Fakhrul also urged them to guard the polling stations until the votes are counted so that Awami League cannot rig the polling.
Meanwhile, voicing deep concern over the leakage of a question paper of class two in Barguna, BNP on Monday said it is a 'shameful' incident for the entire nation.
"The current government couldn't give the nation anything, except scandals. The latest scandal is the leak of a question of class two which hit the headlines at the international level. It's very shameful for the entire nation," said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
He came up with the comments while speaking at a press briefing at BNP's Nayapaltan central office.