DHAKA, Oct 02, 2025 (BSS) - The Election Commission (EC) has sent a letter to the National Citizen Party (NCP), asking it to choose an election symbol from the EC's reserved list of 50 symbols and submit the selection to the EC in writing by October 7. The directive, issued on September 30, was sent by Md Rafiqul Islam, deputy secretary of the EC's election assistance branch, to NCP Convenor Md Nahid Islam. EC said that NCP, in its application, mentioned water lily, pen, and mobile phone as its preferred symbols in order of choice, later modifying "shapla" to "laal shapla" (red water lily) or "shada shapla" (white water lily). However, the EC mentioned that under Rule 9(1) of the Election Conduct Rules, 2008, the shapla symbol is not included in the list of permissible symbols. The EC further said in the letter that under the Representation of the People Order (RPO) and the Election Conduct Rules, a political party is allotted one of the prescribed symbols for all its nominated candidates, and that symbol remains reserved for the party unless the party later opts for a different one from the approved list. Along with the letter, the EC provided NCP with the complete list of available symbols, from which it must select one to proceed with the next step of the registration process. The options include bed, ostrich, brinjal, watermelon, prawn, butterfly, balloon, football, bucket, banana, mobile phone, duck, and helicopter, among others.  

RANGPUR, Oct 2, 2025 (BSS) – The Sanaton community today completed the five-day celebration of its greatest religious festival, Durga Puja, where idols of goddess Durga were immersed in water bodies amidst huge festivities with due religious fervor.   Most of the idols of goddess Durga were immersed into the water bodies like Mulatol Dighee, Dimla Mandir Dighee, Jailkhana Ghat, Doulatpur Dighee, Rail Gate Dighee, the river Ghagot and other water bodies in the city and its surrounding areas by 8 pm. The district and police administrations and Rangpur Metropolitan Police (RpMP) extended assistance to the puja mandap authorities in carrying and immersing the idols of Devi Durga into the rivers, ponds and other water bodies.     This year, the Durga Puja was celebrated peacefully with religious rituals and ceremonies at 912 puja mandaps amidst tight security in eight upazilas of the district and Rangpur city. On the last day of the five-day festival, 'Mahadashami', the puja mandap premises across the district were filled with crowds from the morning and were decorated with eye-catching and colorful decorations. Hundreds of Sanaton devotees, mostly women attired in colorful dresses, throng the puja mandaps for the last ‘darshan’ of goddess Durga to seek her blessings for the well-being of the country, the nation, the people and the entire humanity. They fed sweets to goddess Durga, put vermilion on her face and exchanged the same among themselves at the puja mandaps across the district. Leaders of the Sanaton community and local units of Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad (BPUP) expressed satisfaction over the tight security measures taken by the authorities concerned to ensure peaceful celebrations of the Durga Puja festival. Leaders of Rangpur district and city units of BPUP along with the Sanaton devotees participated in the process of immersions of the idols in the water bodies. Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Rabiul Faisal, Superintendent of Police Md Abu Saim, leaders of the Sanaton community and BPUPs visited puja mandaps and extended full cooperation to the Sanaton community people. “We had taken sufficient steps and security measures to ensure peaceful celebrations of the five-day Durga puja at all puja mandaps,” the Deputy Commissioner said. RpMP Commissioner Md Majid Ali told reporters that the Sanaton community celebrated the five-day Durga Puja festival peacefully with great enthusiasm at all the mandaps in the city. “We had taken adequate measures and ensured the use of closed circuit cameras at every puja mandap. Beside, the police force and puja celebration committees were vigilant to ensure the peaceful celebration of the festival,” he said. Convener of the district and metropolitan units of BPUP Dr Nikhilendra Shankar Guha Roy thanked the interim government, local administrations and law enforcement agencies for ensuring complete security during the five-day Durga Puja festival. He expressed happiness saying that the Santan devotees offered prayers, puja, archana, kirtons and performed other religious rituals peacefully without any problem.