BNP selects Awami League leader for women’s reserved seat

BNP has selected an Awami League grassroots leader as the ruling party’s lawmaker for a women’s reserved seat in the Parliament.

Suborna Thakur is Secretary for Forest and Environment Affairs at Awami League’s unit in Kashiani upazila, Gopalganj.

Suborna is a member of the Matua community, a prominent anti-caste community among Hindus, and belongs to the influential Harichand Thakur family. Apart from being a politician, she is also a teacher.

According to Awami League’s Kashiani upazila unit sources, the unit’s triannual council was held on 30 November 2022, and a new committee was announced a month later on 1 January 2023.

On Monday, social media debate and uproar erupted after her name was announced alongside BNP’s 35 other candidates for the women’s reserved seats for the 13th Parliament.

When journalists asked her about the debate, Suborna said Awami League included her name in the Kashiani upazila committee in 2022 without taking her consent.

She was not involved with Awami League’s politics, she added.

However, numerous pictures shared on the social media showed her attending Awami League’s programmes and events.

A secretary at Awami League’s Gopalganj district unit, preferring anonymity, told reporters that Suborna was a member of the Kashiani upazila committee but is now denying it and betraying the party to get a new post and status.