The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Awami League yesterday failed to reach a consensus with its allies to announce common candidate for the post of Mayors in different City Corporations, especially for Rajshahi after holding a marathon meeting.

A three-hour meeting was held at the Gulshan residence of Awami League Acting President Zillur Rahman in the evening.

After the meeting Zillur Rahman told reporters that the meeting although fruitful was inconclusive. The meeting was adjourned till 5:00pm today.

The party insiders implied that AL Workers Party had haggled on the issue of the announcement of mayor candidate for Rajshahi City Corporation.

Workers Party candidate Fazle Hossain Badsha and Awami League contender Khairuzzaman Liton were the main contenders for the 14-party ticket to contest the election.

Source said majority of the alliance leaders voted for Badsha, while AL took its firm stance to award the ticket to Liton.

But some central leaders of AL were in favour of considering the issue for the sake of the unity of the alliance.

The Awami League working committee meeting will be held today at 11:00am before the alliance leaders resume the negotiations with the AL presidium members.

Yesterday's meeting started at 6.30pm and continued till 9:00pm.

It was attended, among others, by Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta and Begum Matia Chowdhury of Awami League, Rashed Khan Menon and Bimal Biswas of Workers Party, Dilip Barua of Samyabadi Dal, Nurul Islam of Ganatantri Party, Haji Abdus Samad of Gana Azadi League, Amena Ahmed of NAP and Zakir Hossain of Ganatantrik Majdur Party with Zillur Rahman in the Chair.