Khaleda in February this year had met with former MPs Zahir Uddin Swapan, who was also BNP’s former information and research affairs secretary, and Sarder Shakhawat Hossain Bakul at her Gulshan political office, and apparently asked them to become active again in the party.
Following the political changeover in 2007, these two leaders had sided with BNP’s reformists group which was led by the party’s former standing committee member Saifur Rahman and the then secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.
After meeting Khaleda in February, both of them had reportedly said they were returning to party activities with the chairperson’s blessing.
Party sources said Khaleda, who is currently in London since last month, will gradually sit with many other reformist leaders after returning home in mid-September. A little bit of historyThe idea of getting such leaders, some of whom are popular in their areas and have huge vote banks, back to the party is something the Awami League has done about 10 years ago.
Ahead of both 2009 and 2014 general elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the ruling party chief, had had most of the reformist leaders of her party return home to secure Awami League’s victory.
After BNP’s last term in power ended in October 2006, many leaders in both BNP and Awami League had raised their voices on several issues aiming to reform their parties.Also Read- Khaleda plans to return on Sept 15
In BNP, when Khaleda and her eldest son party’s Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman denied their demands, Mannan Bhuiyan and former finance minister Saifur Rahman had led the like-minded leaders to form the ‘Reformist BNP’ after the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government came to power on January 1 in 2007. Since “1/11”, when the military-backed caretaker administration took over, Bangladesh witnessed numerous “ups and downs” in the political arena including imprisonment of Hasina and Khaleda on corruption charges along with many leaders of both parties. When Khaleda was in jail, the reformist leaders had dominated BNP avoiding the party top brass. After she was released in September 2008, some of them left the party and some stayed back by apologising to her for their “mistake” and even took part in the national polls. However, most of the reformist leaders became inactive in politics after that while a handful others passed away under different circumstances.Fear made top brass scrambleThe BNP high command took the initiative to bring back the reformists last year when they feared that many central leaders including Khaleda could be convicted in several cases. They contacted and held meetings with the reformist leaders who did not join other parties after leaving BNP. The top brass thinks their return will strengthen BNP at the grassroots level while somewhat increasing the party’s chances to secure at least 50 constituencies in the next polls, sources said. Many reformist leaders said, after being inactive and on the sidelines for the last 10 years, they do not want to waste the opportunity to return as they could also get party nominations as w Several leaders said they were considering positively responding to Khaleda’s call to return both to the party and politics. One of them, requesting anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the top leaders had contacted them and assured of giving back their past posts in the committees with chances of nominations in the next election. Many have already met with Khaleda Zia and others will also receive calls soon, said the leader. Sources, however, said the central committee will “prioritise the leaders with healthy bank balances while handing out party nominations as election campaigns need adequate financial backup”. They will be followed by the ones who have not joined other political parties and/or are popular too in their areas. The “expelled reformists” will only be able to return to the party and hope for nominations once they fulfil “some conditions” fixed by the top brass, said the sources. Before the last national election held in January 2014, then BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had met with a number of reformist leaders and ordered them not to take part in the polls. At the time Fakhrul had told them that BNP would take them back at a later but convenient time. Three years later, Fakhrul, now the secretary general, and other top leaders are working to bring them back keeping his word. Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told the Dhaka Tribune: “There are no reformists in BNP right now. Those who made mistakes in the past have come back after realising their faults.” “Now all of us are working together for the party and the country,” he added.
