Her pro-people approach, courage, conviction, simplicity and huge development works brought Selina Hayat Ivy back to her mayoral office in Thursday's election to Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC), think her fans and followers. Though Ivy, the country's first female mayor, in an interview before the polls claimed to have achieved overall 60 percent success in addressing the city's problems during her five-year tenure, voters think she did enough for them to be reelected, according to UNB.  A good number of voters on Thursday also said the wrong candidate selection, intra-party conflict, weak election strategy and lack of people’s confidence in its candidate were the major reasons why BNP suffered badly.
“People rewarded Ivy with their powerful ballots as she carried out huge development works in the city over the last five years. I think people voted her as a competent and sincere person, not as a candidate of Awami League,” said Rakibul Hasan, a voter of ward-21.
Rakib, a trader in profession, said Ivy enjoyed huge popularity as a mayor since she worked for all city dwellers irrespective of their political affiliation. She used to stand by people during their time in need. “Ivy is a very simple person who can get associated with people from all strata. That’s why people voted for her.”
Asked why BNP suffered a miserable defeat in the polls, he said Shakhawat Hossain is not much familiar to people and even among BNP leaders and activists. “Although Shakhawat is a
good man, people could not keep confidence in him as they did not know him that much.”
Rakib, a 40-year-old scrap trader, thinks BNP could have got much better results had it picked Taimur Alam Khandaker as its candidate.
Imran Hossain, a voter from ward-16 who cast his vote at Shishubagh Primary School polling centre, said Ivy won as a competent candidate. “Apart from her development activities, she is popular among people for her moral courage, conviction and strong
stance against misdeeds, injustice and terrorism.”
He also said people like her as she being a woman never bows down to a strong man like Shamim Osman. “She’s now a role model of many women and most female voters voted for her.”
Imran, who recently returned home from Saudi Arabia, also said, “People have an impression that Ivy worked as a mayor of common people in the last five years. I believe she would have got more votes had she been an independent candidate as in the previous election.”
About BNP’s poor show, he said its candidate selection was wrong as Shakhawat could not draw the common voters’ attention during his campaign. “Even, many BNP supporters voted for Ivy as a better candidate and for continuation of the development activities.”
Gulzar Hossain, 65, a voter of Jamaipara in the city’s Bandar area, said Ivy carried out huge development activities and changed the scenario of their area. “People disregard of their party and opinions voted for her in a show of their gratitude to her. I voted for Ivy, not for boat.” Gulzar, a retired government employee, thinks BNP’s election strategy was not good. “Ivy didn’t carry out electioneering with Awami League leaders while Shakhawat did the same with senior BNP leaders. Shakhawat tried to use BNP central leaders’ image instead of showing his guts. People didn’t like it.”
Shahnaj Begum, a housewife and a voter of Shikder Abdul Malek High School, said people gave their verdict in favour of Ivy as recognition of her development work.
“During monsoon, people had been unable to walk on most roads in Bandar area as those either got muddy or went under water five years back. She resolved the problem and improved the roads. Not only in the Bandar area, she developed roads but also in most other city areas and got people’s feedback through ballots.”
Shahnaj believes BNP could not do well in the polls because of its intra-party conflict. “Local BNP leaders didn’t work sincerely for Shakhawat. BNP councillor candidates won in many wards, including 21 and 22. But its mayoral candidate did very poor in those wards. How would general people trust him when BNP men can’t keep confidence in him?” Ekramul Haq, a resident of Siddhirganj’s Kadamtali area, said people voted for Ivy as they had perception that there is no alternative to her for the development of the city and maintaining peace and safety. Ekram, a student of Government Tolaram College, said Shakhawat and BNP leaders during their campaign mainly highlighted national issues instead of presenting better ideas for the city’s development which failed to attract voters.
He believes Ivy will do much better in her next tenure than the previous one as she is now an experienced mayor as well as a mayor belonging to the ruling party.