Mahmudur Rahman Manna, president of the Nagorik Oikya party, has withdrawn from the Dhaka-18 parliamentary race, citing campaign costs. He announced the decision on his verified Facebook page late Sunday.

However, he will remain a candidate for Bogura-2 (Shibganj) where he is continuing his election campaign. He wrote in his Facebook post, “I am currently in Bogura. In a specific context, I had decided to contest the parliamentary election from [both] Dhaka-18 and Bogura-2.”

Manna said the expense of contesting Dhaka-18, which covers roughly 650,000 voters, was beyond his means.

“The election is so expensive that it’s not possible for me to carry it out,” Manna wrote from Bogura. “In this context, I have decided to withdraw myself from the electoral contest for Dhaka-18.” He apologised to supporters who might be disappointed by his decision.

Dhaka-18 includes Khilkhet, Kuril, Uttara, Uttarkhan, Dakkhinkhan, and Turag. Other candidates are SM Jahangir Hossain of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Muhammad Ashraful Haque of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and Ariful Islam of the National Citizen Party.