Ilias Ali’s wife Tahsina Rushdir wins big in Sylhet-2

Tahsina Rushdir Luna, wife of missing BNP leader M Ilias Ali, has won the Sylhet-2 (Biswanath and Osmani Nagar) constituency by a margin of 79,321 votes.

The returning officer of the election and Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Md Sarwar Alam announced the unofficial results on Thursday (12 February) night after vote counting, reports Prothom Alo.

According to the results, Tahsina Rusdir, contesting with the "Sheaf of Paddy symbol," secured 1,17,956 votes. Her nearest rival, Muntasir Ali of Khelafat Majlish, contesting as a candidate of the 11-party alliance, received 38,635 votes.

Among the 33 candidates in Sylhet's six constituencies, Tahsina was the only female contender. Although she received party nomination in the 11th Parliamentary Election, she could not take part in the polls due to legal complications.

According to local BNP sources, her husband, former BNP central organising secretary Ilias Ali, was elected Member of Parliament twice from this constituency.

On 17 April 2012, Ilias Ali reportedly went missing along with his driver from Banani in Dhaka. Since then, her wife has been politically active in her husband's constituency.

Later, she was appointed as an adviser to the BNP chairperson. For the past 13 years, she has remained politically active in the Sylhet-2 constituency.

Besides Tahsina and Muntachir Ali, three other candidates contested in Sylhet-2. They are Mahbubur Rahman Chowdhury of the Jatiya Party, Md Amir Uddin of Islami Andolan Bangladesh and Mujibul Huq of Gono Forum.

On Thursday at 8am, Tahsina cast her vote at Ramdhana Government Primary School polling centre in Biswanath upazila. After voting, she spoke to journalists and expressed the pain of not being able to have her "disappeared" husband Ilias Ali back.

"It hurts that I have not been able to get Ilias Ali back. In his absence, I am contesting the election from his parliamentary constituency, Sylhet-2," she said.