BNP plans joint opposition movement

Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has planned to constitute a platform comprising all opposition political parties to wage a movement for an election-time caretaker government.

`This all-party platform will initially wage a movement to ensure a system for fair elections under a non-party government,’ a BNP standing committee member told New Age, adding that the issue has been discussed positively in a series of meetings of BNP policy makers with leaders of different tiers of the party.

He said that the final decision on the collective platform would be taken at a standing committee meeting.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had also left such a hint on Wednesday night, when he was talking with reporters at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office after a meeting with the party’s senior joint secretaries general, secretaries general, organising secretaries and assistant organising secretaries to discuss the party plan while the ruling Awami League has started preparations for the next general elections.

After the seven-hour-long marathon meeting, Fakhrul said that the party would also talk with the leaders of the country’s different political parties about the current political situation, in addition to the joint movement platform.

‘No decision in this regard has yet been taken. We will take our decision on the matter at our next standing committee meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Saturday,’ he added.

Another BNP leader said that a good number of senior and mid-level party leaders and leaders of front organisations gave their opinion in favour of inviting all opposition parties and organisations for a ‘collective movement’ to realise a non-party election-time government.

`The party policymakers consider the proposal a positive one. It won’t be a power-sharing alliance, it will be a platform to launch a movement based on common interests of the parties,’ he said.

As part of the series of meetings over the past three days, the BNP policymakers on Thursday held a meeting with leaders of different associate organisations.

On Wednesday, the party held a meeting with its senior joint secretaries general, secretaries general, organising secretaries and assistant organising secretaries while the first of the meetings was held on Tuesday with the party’s vice-chairpersons and advisory council members.

In the meetings, many BNP leaders urged the party policymakers not to take any move for a platform like the Jatiya Oikya Front that was instituted under the leadership of Gono Forum president Dr Kamal Hossain before the 11th Jatiya Sangsad elections.

Many of them sought street movements under the leadership of trusted, dynamic and capable leaders, who had earlier made successful examples of movement.

They also suggested that the policymakers should constitute a team to make preparations and work out strategies for the parliamentary polls.

The BNP formed a 502-member national executive committee, including 35 vice-chairpersons, through its sixth national council session on March 19, 2016.

The party advisory council consists of 74 members.

New Age