Heightened rivalry, for what?

The upazila polls, now being held across the country in phases, have generated enough of heat at the national as well as local levels.
Last Sunday's issues of a number of national dailies carried pictures of gun-toting supporters of rival candidates belonging to the ruling Awami League (AL) at Sreepur of Gazipur district. The supporters clashed on Saturday during electioneering. Since the warring groups were from the ruling party, the police preferred to be silent spectators. The clash had left 40 people including a number of police personnel bullet-hit and a good number of vehicles vandalised.
The same day, supporters of two rival upazila chairman candidates of the ruling party clashed at Kachua, Chandpur, on the eve of a scheduled visit to the locality by former home minister and lawmaker from the area Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir. Both sides used arms during the clash in which a pistol belonging to a policeman was snatched. However, the pistol was found abandoned at a nearby place.
The incidents of clashes between supporters of rival candidates supported by the ruling AL and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and rebel candidates has been more than any time in the recent past. The environment of the UZ polls is tense this time because someway the polls results have some impact on the national politics.
There is no denying that in the past also politics played a part in the local level elections though laws concerned leave no scope for involvement of political parties with the local government elections.
But this is for the first time the political involvement is rather open and candidates are being directly supported by the political parties. The success of the candidates supported either by AL or BNP weighs the national politics heavily unlike in the past. The success of BNP and Jamaat candidates in elections held in majority of upazilas so far has given rise to serious concern in the ruling party camp. Fear is growing among poll-watchers that next phases of upazila polls might witness increased incidents of violence and ballot-stuffing.  
In fact, the upazila polls this time has assumed greater importance mainly due to the boycott of January 05 polls by the BNP and some other smaller parties in support of their demand for holding national elections under a caretaker administration. The opposition BNP thinks that poor showings by the ruling party-supported candidates in the ongoing upazila polls provide some credence to its claim that the incumbent government does not have any popular support.
But is all this noise over upazila polls worth it? How much authority will the people elected as chairmen, vice-chairmen and women vice-chairman exercise in the development or administrative activities of their respective areas?
It would be better to have answer to this million dollar question from the outgoing upazila chairmen and their colleagues in the upazila parishads, the majority of whom belong to the ruling AL.
These poor fellows have tried their best to secure their authority over upazila matters but could do nothing. The legal provision that makes the lawmakers the ultimate decision-makers in upazila affairs has remained unchanged. Despite being elected by the local people as decision-makers on their behalf the lawmakers wield authority as 'advisers'.  There could be exceptions, but in most cases upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen are not happy with this kind of unwanted 'interference'.  
This time dissatisfaction over such 'interference' might reach a new height because of a few practical reasons. In most upazilas, lawmakers belong to the ruling AL and until now, nearly two-thirds of the newly elected upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen belong to BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. The political rivalry could add new dimension to old discord over exercise of authority.
Moreover, the newly elected upazila leaders would enjoy certain psychological edge over the lawmakers of the 10th parliament more than half of whom were elected unopposed, an unprecedented event in the parliamentary history of any country, and the rest in a poorly participated election.
The relations between the elected upazila leaders and the lawmakers, in most cases, have been tense and sour. But at the end of the ongoing upazila polls the relationship could even turn extremely bitter. And the development and other administrative activities in upazilas might be the victim of such a soured equation.
The existence of elected representatives belonging to opposite political camps is nothing extraordinary. This does happen at many places. But the present Bangladesh situation cannot be considered normal for the political rivalry between the ruling camp and the opposition, apparently, has reached its peak.
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