BNP leaves four seats for Islamic Party

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has reached a seat-sharing agreement with Islamist political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh for the upcoming thirteenth national parliament election.

Under the agreement, BNP has left four seats for Jamiat, in exchange for which the party will not field any candidates against BNP across the country. However, Jamiat candidates will contest with their own symbol, the date palm tree mark.

This information was highlighted at a press conference after the agreement meeting with Jamiat at BNP Chairperson's office in Gulshan of the capital on Tuesday (23 December) by BNP Acting General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. He said there will be no BNP candidate in the four seats.

The four seats are: Nilphamari-1 (Domar-Dimla), where candidate is Maulana Md. Manjurul Islam of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh; Narayanganj-4 (Fatullah) - Mufti Monir Hossain Kasemi; Sylhet-5 (Jakiganj-Kanaighat) - Maulana Md. Ubaidullah Faruk and Brahmanbaria-2 (Sarail-Ashuganj) - candidate Maulana Junaid Al-Habib.

At the press conference, BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed said agreement has been reached that there will be no BNP candidate in the agreed seats and no Jamiat candidate in any other seat across Bangladesh.

Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam Ameer Maulana Obaidullah Faruk along with other leaders of the party were present at the press conference.