Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday once again sought people’s vote for her party’s election symbol, boat, in the next general election and give it another chance to serve the nation.

"BNP-Jamaat will destroy the country and my party can only save it from the devastation," she said.

The prime minister was addressing a grand rally marking inauguration of the Dhaka-Bhanga section of the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project at Mawa, Munshiganj.

The rally was organised by the Faridpur District Awami League at the newly constructed Dr Kazi Abu Yusuf Stadium in Faridpur which was inaugurated by the premier prior to join the rally.

Read: Next election in Bangladesh will be free and neutral: PM Hasina

"I’m today giving you a gift, the Padma Bridge rail link after the Padma bridge… I call upon you all to vote for the boat so the Awami League can serve the people again," she said.

She travelled to Bhanga from Mawa on a special train after opening the rail service through the country’s longest Padma Bridge, which she inaugurated on June 25 last year.

She said that BNP is a party of looters and its top leaders were found guilty of embezzling the money of orphans, money laundering and firearms trading. 

She also referred to BNP leader Tarique Rahman who left the country giving a bond of doing no politics. She BNP’s ally Jamaat-e-Islami party was involved in war crimes.

Read: PM Hasina inaugurates Dhaka-Bhanga rail link over Padma Bridge

The prime minister also warned the citizens to keep off the bad elements and stand beside the Awami League as the party has always been working to change their fate.

She said their election symbol, boat, has brought the country's independence, constructed the Padma Bridge, Padma Bridge rail, built thousands of kilometres of roads, schools, colleges and infrastructures and thus ensured overall development of the country.

She mentioned that country has achieved the status of a developing country as per the Vision 2021 and it will start the journey of becoming a developing country from 2026.

Read more: PM’s Padma Bridge train journey: 11 individuals of different professions to accompany her

"It has been possible to establish Bangladesh as the role model of development as the people of the country voted the Awami League to power time and again," she said.

Referring to the reign of Ziaur Rahman who she said grabbed power illegally, she said that Awami League has established rights of vote and food as well as democracy in the country, countering BNP's claims that  Ziaur Rahman established multiparty democracy in the country.

Highlighting the development of Faridpur, she assured the people of Faridpur that if they are voted to power again, they will establish a university.

The Prime Minister said that she knows that people of Bangladesh are with her, although many intellectuals are not.

“If the people of Bangladesh will stay beside, any impossible can be done, which we’ve proven through the construction of Padma Bridge and inaugurating the rail connectivity through the Padma Bridge,” she said. 

She said that there are many conspiracies and many plots, but her only resort is the people of Bangladesh.

People of all religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity fought hand in hand in the War of Liberation to attain independence.

“So, people of all faiths will enjoy their religious freedom, observe their religious rituals; it’s our policy and our religion Islam teaches us that.”

In this regards, she criticised BNP for carrying out atrocity and torture on the people of other faiths.

“But, Awami League wants to build this country with non-communal spirits,” she added.

Reiterating her call to boost food production in the wake of Russia-Ukraine war, post Covid-19 and other global difficulties, she urged the countrymen to produce their own food and bring every inch of land under cultivation.

Simultaneously, she also made calls to the countrymen to be austere in using electricity and water.

Central Awami League leaders spoke at the rally presided over by Faridpur district Awami League President Shamim Haque and moderated by its General Secretary Shah Md Ishtiaq Arif.