Dhaka, Jan 5 As Bangladesh heads towards its 13th Parliamentary elections in February, it has come to light that out of the 17 candidates fielded by the radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami in Dhaka's 20 constituencies, 13 are millionaires, local media reported on Monday.
The election affidavits revealed that the combined assets of the Jamaat candidates --movable and immovable -- amount to at least Bangladeshi taka(Tk) 10 million or more.
The party's nominee in the Dhaka-7 constituency, Md Enayat Ullah, tops the list, with total assets estimated at approximately Tk 1.16 billion, while his liabilities stand at roughly Tk 830 million, leading Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo reported.
According to the affidavits, Jamaat's leader Shafiqur Rahman is contesting from Dhaka-15, with declared assets worth approximately Tk 15 million.
Among other millionaire candidates are Mohammad Nazrul Islam in Dhaka-1 and Md Abdul Haque in Dhaka-2; the latter's nomination was cancelled at the scrutiny stage, but is open to appeal.
Four of Jamaat's Dhaka candidates, Mohammad Kamal Hossain in Dhaka-5, Md Abdul Mannan in Dhaka-6, Md Afzal Hossain in Dhaka-19, and Md Abdur Rauf in Dhaka-20, hold assets below Tk 10 million.
Enayat Ullah has the highest annual income among Jamaat candidates, earning Tk 68,635,000 annually, followed by SM Khaliduzzaman with an annual income of approximately Tk 36,400,000.
The affidavit showed annual incomes of other Jammat candidates, Kabir Ahmed earning around Tk 3.8 million per year, Syed Zainul Abedin about Tk 2.5 million, Muhammad Ashraful Haque Tk 2.3 million, Jasim Uddin Sarker 2.1 million, Abdul Baten Tk 1.6 million and Mir Ahmad bin Quasem approximately Tk 1.1 million.
Reports suggest that for the 13th parliamentary election, Jamaat has given up three of the 20 seats in Dhaka district and the city area under an electoral seat-sharing arrangement with alliance partners.
Of these, Dhaka-8 and Dhaka-11 have been allocated to the National Citizen Party (NCP), which has nominated Nasiruddin Patwari and Nahid Islam, respectively.
Dhaka-13 seat has been reportedly allocated to another ally, the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis.
Bangladesh elections scheduled for February 12 are unfolding among escalating political tensions, with dissatisfaction within the NCP intensifying over its decision to align with Jamaat in the upcoming polls.
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