Sitting in the reception area of a guest house in East Kolkata’s Mukundapur, 39-year-old Partha Pratim Mukherjee was busy scrolling his mobile phone, searching for the latest developments in Bangladesh.
Election officials and security personnel wait to transport ballot boxes and voting materials to a polling station ahead of Thursday’s parliamentary election in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Wednesday. (AP)Bangladesh is preparing for general elections on Thursday. This is the first parliamentary election in the country after nearly 18 months of political turmoil following the resignation of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
“I may not be there as I am in Kolkata for my treatment, but I try to stay abreast of developments. Awami League may be barred from the election but there is no doubt that its voters will be the deciding factor in this election,” said Mukherjee.
A garment trader from Gazipir, Mukherjee has been coming to Kolkata for the past six years for treatment after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
He said, “Both Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami are trying to reach out to Awami League voters. Although a section of them will definitely stay away from the elections, it remains to be seen which way the other section votes. They could be a game changer for BNP or Jamaat.”
A series of pre-election surveys conducted over the past two months by consulting firms, research firms and think tanks suggested the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was ahead and its new chairman Tariq Rahman was in pole position to become the next prime minister.
About 12 km away, another Bangladeshi national, Arpan Lahiri, who lives in a guest house on Marquis Street, came with his 13-year-old son for his wife’s treatment at a private hospital in EM Bypass near Salt Lake.
“Corruption, stability and economic development, inflation and unemployment and ban on Awami League are some of the key issues. Recent opinion polls say that 48% of Awami League voters are likely to vote for BNP,” Lahiri said.
For Aniruddha Das, a resident of Sunamganj, Sylhet, who came to Kolkata for his wife’s treatment, the national referendum piqued his interest. “I am really looking forward to all this. On the one hand we are having elections without the Awami League, on the other hand we are having a national referendum,” said Das.
Election Commission data shows that first-time voters are about 3.58% of the total 127.7 million voters.
