Cumilla: Ruling party Awami League Secretary-General Obaidul Quader has said candidates who have sacrificed for the party during its bad times, and enjoy the acceptance of the people, will get the party’s nominations for 11^th Jatiya Sangshad elections.

Conversely those who have exploited the party’s good standing or extorted money in its name will not, said the veteran AL leader while speaking at a public rally on the premises of Eliotganj Rabi High School in Daudkandi on Saturday.

Speaking at what was essentially a campaign rally, Obaidul, also the Road Transport and Bridges Minister, once again claimed ‘many beneficiaries and opportunists’ have entered the party’s fold in recent times, a theme he has often returned to over the last one year, as a way to rally the traditional AL base, mandy feel sidelined in the party.

‘They will never stay with the party through hard times. We may call them the otithee pakhi (guest or migratory birds),’ Quader said.

He expressed his absolute faith in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina awarding nominations to the deserving candidates only on the basis of a well-thought out decision.

He dismissed the BNP’s chances of mounting any movement prior to the election, claiming ‘they don’t have the public support to do so.’ He also chastised them as a poor guardian for the nation’s democracy.

The programme was presided over by Hazi AKM Bahauddin Bahar, president of Cumilla metropolitan Awami League.

AL turned out a very strong line up of party higher-ups for the rally; besides Obaidul Quader, joint secretary-general Md Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and presidium member Abdul Matin Khashru also spoke at the rally, reflecting the importance in which Cumilla is held by politicians.