Defeated by over a lakh votes, Shamim Osman still received nearly 78 thousand votes at the just-concluded Narayanganj City Corporation election. He thus remains one of the formidable forces in the city. About a hundred young men, feared for their notoriety, remain extremely loyal to Shamim Osman.
In Narayanganj it is widely known that some of these young men and cronies are even ready to sacrifice their lives for Shamim. And this is exactly the worry that might come back to haunt Narayanganj residents. His miserable defeat might have put Shamim through political humiliation, but people who know him say he will recover from this situation and might well keep up his old contacts.
His alleged network of a multi-million taka extortion racket, dubious involvement in real estate business and other illegal trades continue to prosper with the help of a 100-man squad he so assiduously is believed to be nurturing.
In the past Shamim has survived several defeats. For instance, in the 2001 general polls, as soon as he sensed defeat, he disappeared from Narayanganj. For five years his whereabouts could not be ascertained. But in Narayanganj people who know him say that his extortion racket never stopped operating despite his absence.
“When Shamim was away during those five years his men continued to extort money from sand traders, the general business community and the transport sector with increased ferocity,” said a local Awami League leader requesting not to be named.
“When Shamim is in trouble politically or socially, his men intensify their extortion, always with the excuse that they need more money to face the crisis before them,” he added.
In Narayanganj, Shamim Osman is an ordinary AL member without any position in the district branch of the party, but his influence nevertheless goes far. When some central committee leaders, including Mirza Azam, Bahauddin Nasim, Abul Hasnat Abdullah and Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya turned up in Narayanganj to drum up support for him, it became clear that Shamim's influence in the party was based on very solid foundations.
“This defeat will not deter him from pursuing his dubious intentions. He will first extend his support to Ivy and try to negotiate his way into smooth criminal operations in the district,” said another local AL leader.
“Now that he has lost face before the people and also before the local administration, he will concentrate on licking his wounds with the administration whose help he so desperately needs to keep his followers busy in their lucrative activities,” said a local journalist who too requested anonymity.
According to local people, Shamim Osman is not worried about his political existence, for he has been reassured about his future by the party leadership in Dhaka.
SM Wazed Ali Khokan, vice president of Narayanganj city AL and an ardent Shamim follower, said that his leader would first try to repair his image which had been badly dented by the national media during the election. “We want to emphasise taking up activities geared to serving the people and regaining their support. And once Shamim restores his image in Narayanganj, he will return as the true leader of the area with the people's mandate,” Khokan said.
A close aide to Shamim, Chandan Shil, also expressed his optimism about a bright political future for Shamim. He, however, acknowledged that the defeat in the mayoral election had been indeed a major blow to Shamim but said it was a matter of time before he bounced back.
Shamim yesterday told reporters that he had been a political activist and would remain one for good.
Talking about his political future, he said that he was there to stay mainly to “serve the people.”