Dhaka, Feb. 9 -- On the first day of his election campaign in Dhaka, Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairman Tarique Rahman has sought votes for the "sheaf of paddy" and the "spade" symbols.

At a rally in Tejgaon for the Dhaka-12 seat on Sunday night, he asked voters to back Saiful Haque, general secretary of the Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh.

"We are supporting one of our comrades, Saiful Haque, who stood beside us during the past movement in the parliamentary polls," said Tarique.

Requesting people to vote for "spade", he said, voting for the election symbol means voting for "sheaf of paddy".

Tarique warned people about a political conspiracy to strip them of their political rights.

"We saw in the newspaper that a member ...