Empty chairs, empty field: Common people did not come to BNP MP’s ‘public reception’

❐ Local Correspondent

A video of a civic reception organized in honor of Dr. Abdus Salam, the member of parliament for the Thakurgaon-2 (Baliadangi-Haripur) constituency, has gone viral on Facebook, triggering widespread discussion and criticism.

The video shows all the chairs in the front rows of the audience area empty, prompting many social media users to mock the event as a “civic reception in an empty field.”

The reception was organized Tuesday afternoon, June 2, by the Baliadangi Upazila unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to honor Dr. Abdus Salam following his election to parliament. Several leaders and activists of the BNP and its affiliated organizations attended the event. While Dr. Salam and local party leaders could be seen on the stage, the viral video showed the entire front section of the audience seating area vacant, with no members of the general public present.

The video began spreading rapidly across various Facebook pages, groups and personal accounts on Tuesday. Many users shared the footage and questioned why the front rows were empty at an event described as a civic reception.

The incident quickly became the subject of widespread jokes and commentary on social media.

Following the video’s circulation, the lawmaker’s daughter, Kaniz Fatema, responded publicly. In a Facebook post, she claimed that the videos and photographs being shared online did not reflect the entirety of the event.

According to her, the main program was scheduled for the evening. However, because her father needed to return to Dhaka for urgent business, guests formally presented the reception earlier than originally planned. As a result, public attendance at that particular time was comparatively low.

She further claimed that more people joined the event later.

Kaniz Fatema also urged people not to evaluate the entire program based on videos or photographs taken at a specific moment and called on social media users to refrain from making misleading comments without knowing the full context of the event.