For the first time after the country’s independence, the district has got no minister in the new cabinet.
Awami League President Sheikh Hasina on Monday took oath as Prime Minister of the country for the 4th term, including the 3rd consecutive one, along with her 46 cabinet members following her party Awami League’s massive victory in the 11th national election.
However, there is no representative of Sirajganj in the cabinet.
Sources at Awami League said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina picked her cabinet members this time mostly from the districts which did not have ministers in the past to strike a balance.
Meanwhile, the people of Sirajganj still hope that the Prime Minister will consider the matter positively and pick someone from the district for her cabinet.
Many expressed their frustration in their Facebook posts after seeing no minister and state minister from their district, the birthplace of M Mansur Ali.
They said since the country’s independence, every government used to pick a minister or state minister from the district with Mansur Ali’s son Mohammed Nasim serving as health and family welfare minister in the immediate past cabinet.
Mansur Ali had been made Communications Minister and later Prime Minister of the Bangabandhu government formed in 1972 while Abdul Momin Talukder, an MP from Belkuchi seat, served as a state minister of the government.
Dr MA Matin served as a minister during the tenure of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and later he was made a minister and the deputy prime minister during the military rule of HM Ershad.
During the 1991-1996 BNP government, Ansar Ali Siddique of Chouhali was made a state minister.
Nasim was first made posts and telecommunications minister, then home and finally housing and public works minister during the Awami League government’s tenure from 1996 to 2001. Hasibur Rahman Swapan served as a deputy minister of the government.
The BNP government made Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku state minister for power and energy during its 2001-2006 tenure.
Abdul Latif Biswas was inducted into the cabinet as the livestock and fisheries minister during the Hasina-led government formed through the December-29 election in 2008. At the same time, HT Imam was appointed as an adviser to the Prime Minister with the status of a minister.
After the January-5, 2014 election, Nasim was health and family welfare minister while HT Imam continued to serve as the PM’s adviser.
In the December-30, Awami League won all the six constituencies of the district by a big margin.
After the election, the people of the district had expected that either Mohammed Nasim or Dr Habibe Millat will find their place in the cabinet.