Awami League, moved by their defeats in the last five city polls, has decided to dispatch 16 teams across the country in a bid to inspire and motivate grassroots-level activists to prepare and work for the upcoming polls.
Party joint general secretary Mahabub-Ul-Alam Hanif admitted that the teams have been finalised when talking to the Dhaka Tribune on Monday. "Party President Sheikh Hasina have already approved the lists and sent them to her office in Dhanmondi on Monday. They will be declared from there."
The teams are to be headed by advisory council members, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta; presidium members, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Matia Chowdhury, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mohammad Nasim, Kazi Jafrullah, Shatish Chandra Roy, Shahara Khatun and Obaidul Kader; general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, and joint general secretaries, Mahabub-Ul-Alam Hanif, Dipu Moni and Jahangir Kabir Nanak.
Responding to a query, Hanif, also the special assistant to the prime minister, said the teams would visit every districts and upazilas to boost party activists.
"These teams will hold rallies and workers-meeting in each upazilas and highlight the incumbent government's achievements," he said adding they would also counter BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami's propaganda to mislead the people.
Awami League Organising Secretary Khalid Mhamud Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune that the teams would give guidelines to prepare the party leaders and activists across the country for next national polls. "These teams will work till elections and make the party-men concentrate on polls."
The decision to dispatch the teams was taken at a July 18 meeting of the central working committee, the highest decision-making body of the party. It was part of the initiative to maximise efforts to reorganise the party after Eid to reverse the public opinion towards AL.
AL is passing a crucial time for its fifth consecutive defeat in mayoral polls in less than a month time and thus the party has decided to reorganise itself ahead of the national polls and to regain party activists and supporters' morale.
Last year, the ruling party formed 12 teams headed by party's senior leaders to strengthen party's organisational base and hold conferences in district and upazila levels within the shortest possible time.
Besides this, the party central sent official directives to president and general secretaries of each upazila units to assist the teams and take necessary arrangement to hold the council sessions. However, those committees apparently failed to complete the council sessions and strengthen the party at its grass root levels.
Meanwhile, Awami League's volunteers' front, Swechchhasebak League, finalised 26 teams comprising of the front's central leaders which would tour across the country from August 11-20. The front's general secretary, Pankaj Devnath, told the Dhaka Tribune the teams would hold rallies and other mass programmes to draw public attention to the government's achievements and counter BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami's propaganda.