Born in Chattogram, living in Dhaka: Alim Nizami runs for MP in a Thakurgaon he had never visited

He was born in Banshkhali, Chattogram, and his home is in Ashulia, Dhaka. He has no family roots in Thakurgaon, no relatives and no circle of acquaintances there. By his own account, he had never even visited the district before. Yet Abdul Alim Nizami is now contesting the by-election for the Thakurgaon-1 parliamentary seat.

Nizami, a member of the central Majlis-e-Shura of the Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon, has entered the race with the 'banyan tree' election symbol. To local voters he is a completely new face, and that novelty has become the most talked-about aspect of his campaign.

His campaign machinery is very limited, and he has hardly any party workers at the local level. His main campaign tools are just four battery-run rickshaws, microphones and leaflets — with these meagre resources he is trying to reach the voters of the constituency.

Despite the limited campaign, Nizami is going door to door with an eight-point programme. What matters more to him than promises of local development is national-level lawmaking. In particular, he wants to enter parliament to push for an effective law to stop religious defamation and derogatory remarks.

Speaking to journalists recently at the Art Gallery intersection in Thakurgaon town, Abdul Alim Nizami laid out his election plans and goals. He said he had taken a principled decision in advance to contest any by-election held anywhere in the country. When the Thakurgaon-1 seat fell vacant, he became a candidate there as part of that decision.

In Nizami's view, the scope for effective action against religious defamation from outside parliament is limited. That is why he wants to become an MP — to play a direct role in the lawmaking process. The issue is one of the central planks of his eight-point programme. Ensuring the security of minority communities also features prominently in his campaign.

Nizami said financial constraints prevent him from running a large-scale campaign. He is campaigning with microphones fitted to four battery-run rickshaws and handing out leaflets to voters. But he openly admits that reaching every voter in the constituency by rickshaw is difficult.

The candidate also acknowledged that the Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon does not have a strong organisational base in Thakurgaon. By his account, the party has almost no active local leaders or workers. However, a veteran follower of the party's founder, Hafezzi Huzur, is with him. He claims that through campaigning he is getting to know local people, and some of them are working for him on their own initiative.

His view on constituency development is notably different. In his opinion, an MP's main job is national-level lawmaking and playing a role on matters of public interest. He is not in favour of becoming an MP for development allocations; local development, he says, is the responsibility of local government. If elected, however, he plans to build a house in Thakurgaon and live there regularly, he said.

On minority security, Nizami cited the 2003 incident in Sadhanpur, Banshkhali, Chattogram, where 11 members of a Hindu Sheel family were burned to death. He claimed that because of the lengthy trial process, many of the accused died before the case was finally resolved. For such crimes, he wants a system in which the entire process — case filing, investigation, trial, appeal and execution of the verdict — is completed within a maximum of one year. Ensuring swift trials and punishment, he believes, can help prevent such violence.

Expressing hope of winning and entering parliament, Nizami has appealed to the voters of Thakurgaon for support. He has called on Muslim voters to vote for him out of a sense of religious duty.

At the same time, he has sought votes on the banyan tree symbol from minority communities too, promising to ensure their security, legal protection and civil rights. How much response this unusual candidacy — in an unfamiliar constituency among unfamiliar voters — ultimately draws at the ballot box remains to be seen.