Novices dominate Trinamool BNP's Barishal nominations

Shahnaz Hossain sought an Awami League nomination in 2014 and attempted to secure reserved seat nominations from the party in 2014 but always failed to come by any nomination. 

She is now a Trinamool BNP candidate contesting for the Barisal-3 constituency.

"I unofficially held the position of general secretary in Babuganj Upazila Awami League. While actively involved in AL politics, I am now contesting with a Trinamool ticket to contribute to and make the polls festive and participatory," stated the candidate.

Shahnaz is one of the candidates declared by Trinamool BNP in Barishal Division for the upcoming 12th Jatiya Sangsad polls, all of whom possess limited political and no previous election experience at the national level. 

The Business Standard contacted all these Trinamool candidates yesterday. Of them, 17 responded, and two did not receive mobile calls, but information about them was collected locally. 

Only two with election experience are Kamruzzaman Liton from Barguna-2 and Jasim Uddin Talukder from Jhalakathi-1.

Sohel Rana, chairman of Barishal University's Political Science Department, told TBS that the path of politics is long in any country, but the emergence of new political parties just before national elections is not new in this country. 

"Trinamool BNP is quite unknown to the people; they are new. The general public is not yet aware of their electoral strategy," he noted.

"However, elections and public policymaking are fundamentally different. Expertise matters here—not selection. However, it has historically been challenging for new political parties to take part in elections competitively," said the political expert. 

Barishal division comprises 21 constituencies.

The 17 freshers

Barguna-1 candidate Yunus Sohag said he had never participated in an election in his life. "In 1990, I once contested for the post of VP of Ducsu and lost. At that time, I was under the banner of the Democratic Chhatra League."

Noor Alam of Patuakhali-1 collected the nomination form but did not submit it. He said, "I have no previous experience of elections."

Patuakhali-2 and Patuakhali-3 candidates also never ran for any polls.

Dalil Uddin, the candidate of Patuakhali-4, said that even though he joined the election as a nominee of the National People's Party in 2018, his nomination had to be withdrawn.

Bhola-1 candidate Iqbal Hossain got a nomination but did not collect nomination papers. "I withdrew from the election by informing the party central. Besides, I have been in business all my life. I have no experience in politics and elections."

Trinamool candidates of Bhola-2, Bhola-3, and Bhola-4 also admitted to having no election experience.

Md Hanif of Bhola-4 said, "I don't know the names of those who got other nominations in other Bhola constituencies. I don't intend to look for them."

Election experience is non-existent among Trinamool candidates in Barishal-2, Barishal-4, Barishal-5, Barishal-6, Pirojpur-1, and Pirojpur-3 constituencies. ***