How Rushanara narrowly avoided defeat

July 05, 2024
How Rushanara narrowly avoided defeat
  • Observers of local politics say that Ajmal and Rabina are known as politicians of the same circle in the politics of Tower Hamlets.

Roshanara Ali, Britain's first MP of Bangladeshi origin, has created a new record by winning five times in a row. However, despite being an MP for four consecutive terms, Roshanara Ali has to be satisfied with a difficult victory of only 1689 votes in this election.

The role of the Labour Party in the Palestine issue—the complaint of inactivity in the social activities of her parliamentary seat except during the election season—was against Roshanara Ali. Besides, this constituency was previously called Bethnal Green and Bow, but now the boundaries have been changed to Bethnal Green and Stepney. The votes of Bangladeshis increased in the new seats.

Change of seat boundaries, and as a member of Parliament for 14 consecutive years, against groups of Roshanara had a plan to change in this seat. But there was no coordination between her opponents. Being able to use this opportunity, Roshanara did not miss the victory at the last moment. 

Rabina Khan, another candidate of Bangladeshi origin, has been in the field for a long time as a candidate from Lib Dem in this seat. This time, Lib Dem won 71 seats across the country. But Rabina got only 4777 votes in this seat. 

In this seat, Ajmal Mashroor, who has competed with Roshanara twice, came to the ground at the very last moment. He campaigned by using a picture of Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman on his poster. However, Lutfur Rahman's party protested and said that they did not support anyone in this election. But at the last moment, supporters from a significant section of the community, including Lutfur Rahman's activist supporters, almost openly sided with Ajmal. It reverses all previous equations. The announced results show that Roshnara Ali has been elected for the fifth time, getting 15 thousand 896 votes. Her closest independent candidate, Ajmal Mashroor, got 14,207 votes. Ajmal Mashroor eventually gets support from all the right-wing corners, except for Rabina's own few votes. 

The other two independent Bangladeshi candidates for this seat, Sam Uddin, got 325 votes, and Md. Suman Ahmed got 315 votes.

Observers of local politics say that Ajmal and Rabina are known as politicians of the same circle in the politics of Tower Hamlets. If there is a candidate in place of these two candidates, all the calculations would have changed, and it's clear from the result of the vote. Although the right-wing trends could not be united, on the contrary, the tactful politician Roshanara was able to unite all circles outside the right-wing.

On the other hand, a maximum number of 34 people of Bangladeshi descent are candidates for various seats across Britain. But in the end, no one could be the winner except the four who won last time. There is disappointment at various levels in the community.