Dhaka: Five aspirants, including its central leaders Tabith Awal and Asaduzzaman Ripon, collected nomination forms of BNP on Sunday for contesting the by-polls to Dhaka North City Corporation mayor polls with the party ticket.

The nomination seekers bought the forms at Tk 10,000 at different times from BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.

The three other nomination aspirants are BNP assistant publication affairs secretary Shakil Wahed, its Dhaka north city unit president MA Quayum, and ex-MP r Major (retd) Akhtaruzzaman.

Tabith contested the DNCC polls held on April 28, 2015 with BNP ticket and boycotted the voting halfway through bringing various allegations, including widespread vote rigging and obstruction to voters.

Earlier, the party started selling its nomination from at 11am and it continued until 4pm.

On Saturday night, BNP standing committee members at a meeting decided to sell nomination forms among people willing to contest the upcoming by-polls to the DNCC with the party ticket.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said the nomination seekers will have to submit the forms to the BNP office with Tk 25,000 security money by 4pm on Monday.

Later, he said the party nomination board, comprising BNP standing committee member, headed by its chairperson will interview the aspirants on Monday night at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office.

The BNP leader said the nomination board will pick one of the nomination seekers as the party candidate for the by-polls.

He hoped that the name of the party-nominated candidate will be announced on Monday night.

As per the schedule declared by the Election Commission, the by-polls to the DNCC mayoral post will be held on February 26.

The DNCC mayoral post fell vacant with the death of Annisul Huq on November 30 last year.