Former BNP leader Nazmul Huda on Monday dissolved the much-debated Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) and urged the Election Commission not to register the party.
“I am requesting the Election Commission to cancel BNF’s registration. As its convener, I am withdrawing the application submitted to the commission,” Huda told reporters at his office in the capital.
Few weeks earlier he claimed that he had no connection with the BNF as he had been expelled from the party.
Jahanara Begum, co-chairman of the BNF, claimed that Huda had no right to say anything about the BNF as “he is not a member of the party.”
Contacted, Jahanara last night told the Dhaka Tribune: “Who is Huda? He is not in the party. He was expelled. [So] he has no right to say anything about the BNF’s registration. His name was not mentioned in the application which we submitted to the Election Commission.”
At the press conference, Huda said: “I reinforced BNF as a political party to uphold the ideology of my leader Ziaur Rahman. But now the chief coordinator of the party Abul Kalam Azad destroyed the spirit and trying to divert it in a different way. This is why I dissolved the BNF.”
Huda said he would send a letter to the EC informing his decision.
After being expelled from the BNP, Huda, the youngest member of BNP’s first standing committee, announced forming the BNF in August 2011.
BNF applied for EC’s registration with the symbol of “sheaf of wheat,” which is very much similar to the BNP’s “sheaf of paddy.” BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia protested the EC’s move to register the party.
Also a former communications minister during the BNP’s 1991-06 government, Huda’s expulsion was later withdrawn.
In June last year, he resigned from the party, but later claimed that he had withdrawn the resignation letter and he was still with the BNP.
On Monday, he said: “In 2012, I appointed Abul Kalam Azad as the chief coordinator of the BNF. But unfortunately he engaged in conspiracy to weaken the nationalist force.”
On the 10th national elections, he urged the prime minister to dissolve parliament before the next polls and also called for restructuring the EC in consultation with the leader of the opposition.
He said everyone including the United Nation wanted to see an inclusive election except for India. “I hope that India will extend its support to the demand of participatory election and play an important role in putting pressure on the incumbent government.”