With the 11th parliamentary election a few months away, local Awami League leaders are bringing corruption allegations against some existing lawmakers, and urging the party president not to nominate them again for the national polls.

AL leaders of Jashore's Bagharpara upazila unit yesterday at a press conference in Dhaka Reporters' Unity alleged that ruling party lawmaker Ranajit Kumar Roy (Jashore-4) has amassed huge wealth in the last 10 years.

They said Ranajit, who did not have a lot of property before the ninth parliamentary election, has wealth worth several crores of taka now.

Atiar Rahman Sardar, senior vice-president of the unit, said Ranajit won the ninth parliamentary election in 2008 and the 10th in 2014.

“Since then, he began amassing wealth illegally,” he alleged. He said the lawmaker in his affidavit in 2008 mentioned that he has 4 bigha of agricultural land and a tin-shed house on 4 decimal land. Also, his wife and sons did not have any moveable properties.

Atiar claimed that the lawmaker now owns “11 houses in Jashore and Salt Lake City in India, 225-acre of land in Bagharpara and Chougachha and a shrimp enclosure on 50 acres of land in Dumuria upazila of Khulna”.

“He drives an SUV worth Tk 1 crore. His wife and two sons use three cars worth Tk 90 lakh. Besides, there are 10 covered-vans worth about Tk 5 crore under his wife's name,” claimed Atiar.

Contacted, Ranajit claimed that all allegations against him were baseless. “Instigated by a quarter, they are tarnishing my image,” he added without elaborating further.

Meanwhile, ruling party men at a rally in Pabna on Saturday brought similar allegations against lawmaker Mokbul Hossain (Pabna-3) and urged the party leader not to nominate him as a candidate in the upcoming national election.

Former BCL Leaders' Forum organised the rally at Jerjis intersection in the town.

Ishaque Ali Manik, president of Chatmohar municipality unit AL, alleged, “MP Mokbul [in the last 10 years] has been involved in widespread corruption and irregularities in the constituency.”

“Recently, he appointed 90 night guards in Chatmohar in exchange for money. He also manipulated most of the recruitment process in educational institutions during his tenure,” he alleged.

Talking to The Daily Star, Mokbul Hossain denied the allegations. He claimed that those who failed to get “illegal benefits” from him were making the allegations.

'A MAJOR CONCERN'

According to AL leaders, intra-party conflicts over nominations have become a major concern for party high-ups.

Bringing allegations against existing lawmakers and declaring local MPs “persona non-grata” (unwanted) are results of these conflicts, they said.

On September 10, some leaders of Barisal AL and its associate bodies brought allegations against MP Pankaj Debnath (Barisal-4), also the general secretary of Awami Swechchhasebak League. The allegations include not maintaining contact with party grassroots.

Before that, three ruling party MPs were declared “persona non-grata” in their constituencies. They are: Monoranjan Sheel Gopal (Dinajpur-1), Dhirendra Debnath Shambhu (Barguna-1) and Kazi Abdul Wadud Dara (Rajshahi-5).