National polls: AL drops 3 incumbent state ministers

Three members of the current cabinet did not get the nomination of Awami League to contest the 12th national parliament election.

All three are state ministers.

They are State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Zakir Hossain, State Minister for Labour and Employment Begum Monnujan Sufian and State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid.

Zakir is a lawmaker from the Kurigram-4 constituency. He was first elected to the House in 2008. He was given the state minister's portfolio on Jan 7, 2019.

Md Biplob Hasan is replacing him as the party's candidate.

Monnujan is a three-time parliamentarian from Khulna-3. She has represented the constituency in the ninth, tenth and eleventh parliaments.

Her first stint as the state minister for labour was in 2009-14. She acted as the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for the Ministry of Labour and Employment from 2014 to 2018.

The Awami League has chosen SM Kamal Hossain for Khulna-3.

Meanwhile, KM Khalid was first elected to Parliament from Mymensingh-5 in 2008. He was re-elected from his constituency in the last election. Khalid was given the state minister's portfolio in Awami League's current Cabinet on Jan 7, 2019.

Md Abdul Hye Akand will represent the party from Mymensingh-5 this time.

The Awami League started selling nomination papers for the 12th parliamentary elections on Nov 18. The party earned Tk 16.81 crore from selling 3,362 nomination forms.

Today, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader announced names of candidates for 298 constituencies in a press conference at the party's Bangabandhu Avenue office.