Tough competition on Sadar seat
Cox’s Bazar-3 (Sadar-Ramu-Idgaon) is tourism-centric, where issues like tourism, trade, traffic congestion, cost of living and land grabs are shaping the realities. These concerns have not been influenced by party-symbol politics.
Five candidates are contesting the election, notably Lutfur Rahman Kajol of BNP, Shahidul Alam Bahadur of Jamaat and Amirul Islam of Islamic Movement. The main contest is expected to be between Kajol and Bahadur.
Kajol is a former MP from an influential local family; Bahadur is a former vice-chairman of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazila Parishad and former vice-chairman of Cox’s Bazar Government College.
Earlier I had written that when I spoke to low-income workers on the way from Dhaka to Teknaf, many people supported a particular party. That assumption faltered here. On Sunday, after reaching Cox’s Bazar railway station, I asked auto-rickshaw driver Sohag about the situation. He says that Kajol is a good person who has never harmed anyone and is financially secure; His position looks strong.
Yet conversations at at least ten locations suggest newcomer Bahadur has created stiff competition, with some predicting a close race. Ramu’s Nasir Uddin says the wind is slightly in Kajol’s favour, but Bahadur will not be left behind; Whoever wins will win by a very small margin.
The most sensitive constituency of the district is Cox’s Bazar-4 (Ukhia-Teknaf), where the Rohingya crisis, drugs and human trafficking and cross-border security are in the news. BNP’s veteran politician and four-time MP Shahjahan Choudhary is facing tough competition from Jamaat’s Noor Ahmed Anwari.