Long before the election of Rajshahi City Corporation, the incumbent mayor and his predecessor have got involved in conflict over hanging campaign banners.

Tensions arose when followers of Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul and former mayor Khairuzzaman Liton took positions near the foot-bridge on Monday night. However, no untoward incident occurred due to the presence of police.

More than a year ago, the Rajshahi city unit of the Awami League had hung a banner on the foot-bridge in front of RDA Market, the city's busiest shopping centre. Recently, the worn-out banner was blown off, according to local shop owners. They said the banner projected portraits of the ruling party bigwigs and highlighted its development activities.

Three days ago, on Saturday, RCC staff hung a new banner with greetings from Mayor Mosaddek to the city residents on the occasion of Ramadan.

All was well until Monday night when Mayor Bulbul, also the president of the Rajshahi city unit BNP, noticed that his banner was replaced by one of former mayor Liton. Also president of Rajshahi city AL, Liton greeted city dwellers for Eid and asked for votes in the upcoming city election, which is due this year.

The same night, an infuriated Bulbul sat on the road, in front of the bridge, protesting removal of his banner and stayed there for almost three hours till midnight yesterday. He had altercations with police and city AL men, sparking tensions.

The mayor called off the night-time sit-in announcing that he would come back in the morning with his family. In the morning he found his house surrounded by police, and had to stay put in his house for nearly an hour and a half. Later he got out and arrived at the foot-bridge area and started a second sit-in.

During his three-hour stay, AL leaders and activists gathered on the other side of the road, while police kept the mayor encircled. Though there was tension in the area, no unwanted incident followed.

Talking to The Daily Star, Mayor Bulbul said, “They (AL men) think that the entire country is their ancestors' property.”

On the other hand, police are serving the ruling party instead of the people, he said.

The mayor said the corporation reserves the legal right for hanging banners in public places and gives permission to people who need to hang banners. But the ruling party did not take any permission.

When contacted, former mayor Liton admitted that his party activists replaced the banner. “The Awami League has been using the foot-bridge for hanging banners for years…the chaos was created when our banner was replaced,” he said.

“There are many places to hang the banner. Why would they need to hang the banner at the same place?”

He claimed that the city AL took RCC's permission for hanging the banner.