The ruling Awami League is holding party conferences across the country to strengthen its grassroots ahead of the next general elections, as the party has been facing challenges from insiders in addition to the mass rallies in divisional cities by opposition BNP.
The top brass of Awami League said they are aiming to complete all of its upazila and district unit councils before the central council in December, after which they will officially begin campaigning for the parliamentary polls.
The central committee has already conducted councils in 47 district units and 450 upazila units. on Sunday, Awami League central leaders were attending the Naryanganj district unit council and Ashuganj upazila council.
Central leaders of the Awami League have been meeting with grassroots activists twice or thrice a week to issue messages from the party high command.
Inside challenges
When contacted, Kazi Zafarullah, a presidium member of Awami League, told Dhaka Tribune: “At every council, we are sending messages to our leaders and activists to strengthen the party as the next election is approaching.”
He also confirmed that the party plans to finish all councils by the end of the year before beginning preparations for the general polls.
Asked about challenges being faced by the party, Kazi Zafarullah said: “The Awami League is leading the country for three consecutive terms and, as a result, people's expectations are getting very high now. Everybody is running after posts. Everybody wants to become a minister, MP, district unit president or general secretary. This is the biggest challenge the party is facing now.”
He said the party usually had three to four candidates for each MP nomination or post in a constituency, but now 15-20 candidates were contesting each nomination.
“Naturally, there is a lot of competition now and this is a big challenge for us,” the presidium member added.
How to deal with the challenge?
BM Mozammel Huq, an organizing secretary of the Awami League and in-charge of Khulna Division, said: “We are electing or selecting grassroots leaders based on the activists' merits and supporters' demands on the ground.”
He added that the party top brass had directed to evaluate who were genuine Awami League leaders throughout the district and upazila unit councils.