Although BNP big shot Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury won the December 29 election from faraway Chittagong-2 (Fatikchhari) seat against a weaker Awami League candidate, his crushing defeat in Chittagong-6 (Rangunia) is obviously a big blow for him.
With this defeat to AL's highly educated young candidate Dr Hasan Mahmud, the long dynasty or 'so-called' influence of SQ Chowdhury and his family finally saw the end of the line at their home constituencies -- Rangunia and Raozan (Chittagong-5) -- after 1973.
The two lakh voters of Rangunia and 2.10 lakh voters of Raozan this time join hands together to reject both SQ Chowdhury and his younger brother Giasuddin Quader (GK) Chowdhury.
GK Chowdhury lost for the second consecutive period to AL's ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury. Former lawmaker Fazle Karim, who got 86,606 votes, defeated him this time by a margin of 7,895 votes. The margin was slightly lower in 2001.
Former Chittagong University unit BCL leader Hasan, also AL's central forest and environment affairs secretary, crushed heavyweight SQ Chowdhury by a margin of 29,267 votes. Hasan got 1,01,340 votes, while his rival got 72,073 votes.
SQ Chowdhury had won the previous two elections (2001 and 1996) from Rangunia seat with BNP ticket and 1991 polls from Raozan seat with erstwhile NDP (National Democratic Party) ticket. From a period of 1979 to 2001, he was elected as a lawmaker for five times from either Raozan or Rangunia. He left Raozan constituency in favour of his brother in 1996.
After independence, the influential family had swallowed the first electoral debacle when former Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury (FQ Chowdhury), father of SQ Chowdhury and GK Chowdhury, conceded defeat to AL candidate and former editor of daily Azadi Prof Mohammad Khaled in 1973.
The family unleashed a reign of unchallengeable dominance at Raozan and Rangunia upazilas after the death of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
SQ Chowdhury, however, emerged as victorious at Fatikchhari, which is actually not his home seat, by defeating AL candidate and former upazila chairman ATM Payerul Islam by over 37 thousand votes.
Analysts here believe that if the AL policymakers would select a senior-level leader to contest the polls at Fatikchhari, it would have been a clean sweep for SQ Chowdhury on Monday.
"AL spoiled a golden opportunity to wipe out SQ Chowdhury from entire Chittagong in the electoral race for lack of sagacity and foresight in choosing a right candidate," they observed.
Although elected earlier as MP for five times from Rangunia or Raozan, SQ Chowdhury virtually did nothing for the development of the areas. Rather, the two areas were gradually turned into safe havens for terrorists.
In the affidavit he submitted with his nomination paper, SQ Chowdhury admitted that he never gave any pledges to his people who, in return, rejected him at Rangunia this time.
