Five more Jatiya Oikya Front leaders are going to join the dialogue with the ruling Awami League and its allies, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at Ganabhaban on Thursday evening.
Gono Forum Organizing Secretary Mostaque Ahmed told reporters in the afternoon.
The five leaders are BNP Standing Committee members Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, and Gono Forum’s Mokabbir Khan, Jaglul Haider Afridi and AHM Shafiq Ullah.
The new addition takes the number of delegation members to 21.
Earlier, a 16-member Oikya Front team, led by its chief and Gono Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain, was supposed to take part in the talks at Ganabhaban at 7pm Thursday.
The 15 others were – Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Jamiruddin Sircar and Mirza Abbas of BNP; Mahmudur Rahman Manna and SM Akram of Nagorik Oikya; Mostofa Mohsin Montu and Subrata Chowdhury of Gono Forum; ASM Abdur Rab, Abdul Malek Ratan and Tania Rab of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Rab), Sultan Md Monsur and ABM Mostofa Amin of Jatiya Oikya Prokriya, and Gonoshashthaya Kendra Founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury.
On Sunday, Dr Kamal had written to the prime minister, urging her to sit and discuss various issues regarding the 11th general election with them in order to reach a political consensus for free and fair polls.
On Monday, Awami League agreed to sit with the alliance, and the next day, the ruling party’s Office Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap had handed over the prime minister’s formal invitation letter for the dialogue to Dr Kamal.