Fall of star like Mohiuddin in CCC polls, few reasons

By AKM Moinuddin

UNB Staff Writer
Dhaka, June 18 (UNB) - What could be the reasons behind the fall of a ‘political star’ like ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury in Thursday’s mayoral race for Chittagong City Corporation?
Is it incumbency factor or some mistakes he committed during the last part of his tenure in the third consecutive term?
Common people in Chittagong believe Mohiuddin Chowdhury deserved this big defeat. They also feel it is not the charisma of Manjurul Alam Manju; rather, Mohiuddin Chowdhury himself dug his own grave.
People find a number of reasons behind the election debacle of a popular, experienced and charismatic politician like Mohiuddin Chowdhury who ran CCC for 17 years as mayor.
People had expected a close fight between the two major contenders, not so big a defeat for Mohiuddin as transpired at the end of vote counting. Difference of nearly one lakh votes (95,528) with Manju is not a trivial matter.
Elected for three consecutive terms, former mayor Mohiuddin has been credited with carrying out extensive infrastructural development works and as an efficient local administrator of Chittagong city.
During his tenure, secondary schools for girls were built in almost every Ward, and new post-school intermediate and higher education colleges were established. None of the other city corporation authorities in the country could provide such extensive educational services, which basically started after Mohiuddin was first elected mayor of the port city.
Another key achievement of Mohiuddin was building a network of public health facilities - Urban Primary Health Centres, which enabled lower and lower-middle class people to receive basic healthcare before seeing a consultant doctor at government or private hospitals.
Mohiuddin was the first city Mayor in the country to establish a private university - Premier University, Chittgaong sponsored by the CCC.
But all his achievements were apparently overshadowed by a number of follies he committed during his last term.
Observers believe that non-implementation of his 40-point election pledge, transforming the CCC into a commercial institution, running Awami League in Chittagong disregarding opinions of other leaders of the party and lack of coordination within Chittagong city unit of the party might be some of the reasons behind Mohiuddin’s debacle.
It is believed that Mohiuddin managed victory in the last elections by committing to the people 20- and 40-point election pledges, which he could not fully implement.
Before the CCC polls in 2005, Mohiuddin pledged to expand Chittagong metropolitan area to 120 sq kms from 60 sq kms but the Chittagong metropolitan area was not expanded.
He also pledged to remove water and sanitation problems but those remained unresolved. He set up a commercial institution named Premier Drinking Water without solving the water crisis.
Mohiuddin took an initiative to set up power plant under the management of CCC but not a single watt of electricity could be generated.
Intra-party feud was another major reason behind Mohiuddin’s fall. On May 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had a meeting with all senior leaders of Chittagong Awami League to remove misunderstanding between Mohiuddin and other senior leaders.
Mohiuddin begged pardon from Sheikh Hasina and other senior leaders for his misbehavior with other party leaders in Chittagong and for his past mistakes.
However, the people of Chittgaong and the peace-loving people of the country heaved a sigh of relief as the elections passed off peacefully despite few brief untoward incidents before the formal announcement of the poll results.
END/UNB/AKM