In Naogaon, an upazila BNP president levels wide corruption allegations against his own party's MP, who replies

Rabiul Alam Bullet, president of Mahadevpur upazila BNP, has accused Fazle Huda Babul, the member of parliament for Naogaon-3 (Mahadevpur-Badalgachhi), of corruption and abuse of power. His allegations against the MP were heard in a video that spread on social media on Monday night.

It was learned that a preparatory meeting for National Revolution and Solidarity Day was held on Monday afternoon at the rickshaw-van workers' office. Leaders and activists from different levels of the party attended the event, organised by the upazila BNP. Bullet made the allegations at that meeting. At one point he announced that he would present the evidence to the prime minister and to the party's acting chairman, Tarique Rahman.

In the video, Bullet said a separate office had been set up in Mahadevpur with a signboard in the BNP's name. After the 7 November programme, that signboard would be pulled down from there, he said.

He was heard saying in the video: 'Our party chairman told us, "Stay well organised." We need our chairman; if we are to win the people's trust, we must proceed in an orderly, rule-bound way. We have been proceeding that way. All this time I stayed silent, thinking of the local government elections.'

Bullet said the people themselves would answer the allegation of collecting subscriptions by sending letters to every union. Proof of where the BNP asked for money in any union, and from whom the MP asked, would be placed before the people, he said.

He added: 'An account of how much money the MP took from where over the last eight or nine months, and through which bank the bank drafts were deposited, will be presented to Tarique Rahman along with the bank draft numbers.' He also declared that if he could not prove the bank draft corruption in the Mahadevpur thana area, he would quit politics.

Drawing on the fall of the authoritarian government as an example, Bullet said: 'Sheikh Hasina had the police, the army, the BGB, power and the administration; but she could not survive against the people. However powerful an MP may be, and whatever police or civil administration he may have, nothing is greater than the power of the people.'

Comparing the period with that of former local MP Selim, Bullet said: 'What Selim did not do in five years, I believe more corruption than that has happened in these eight or nine months. From a single food warehouse alone he took more than Tk 3 crore. How bills were drawn without any work being done — all the accounts will be given in due time.'

Asked about the video, Mahadevpur upazila BNP president Bullet said briefly: 'I will speak on this in due time.'

Responding to the allegations, MP Fazle Huda Babul said: 'If you are in politics, people will say such political things. Bangladesh is now free in the flow of information and the BNP has opened everything up, so there is nothing to hide. Whoever has audio or statements should come before the nation with proof. I am not new to politics; in politics many people will say many things. You can investigate freely and report.'