AL lines up big rallies in response to BNP’s Sunday rally

The ruling Awami League is planning to show off its political might through rallies and various programmes in the coming weeks, apparently in response to the BNP’s Sunday rally in Dhaka. Sources say the ruling party is trying to gather more people at its planned November 18 rally at Suhrawardy Udyan to highlight its popularity. Awami League insiders say the party has plans to arrange several programmes ahead of the national election’s January 5 anniversary. One feature of the programmes will be the presence of victims of arson attacks and owners of some of the vehicles that were set afire by activists of the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami during their three-month long blockade of roads and railways across Bangladesh in 2015. The BNP and its allies boycotted the last general election demanding supervision by a non-party caretaker administration, which was scrapped through the 15th constitutional amendment by the Awami League-led government in 2011. After a long absence in the country’s political arena, the BNP arranged a rally on Sunday to mark, what it calls the civil-military uprising of November 7, at the Suhrawardy Udyan. The party gathered a large number of supporters for the rally attended by Khaleda Zia. The Awami League, which has been in office since 2009, is responding in kind. It has a rally planned at Suhrawardy Udyan for Saturday to celebrate Unesco’s recognition of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s historic March 7 speech as a world documentary heritage. Dhaka University professor emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman is scheduled to preside over the programme, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is also scheduled to attend as chief guest. An Awami League presidium member, who declined to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune that the party was taking preparations to gather more people at Suhrawardy Udyan than the BNP did. A meeting was held at Hasina’s political advisor HT Imam’s house on November 13. Awami League’s Dhaka City south unit also arranged a meeting to discuss preparations and decided to gather a huge number of people for the rally. The party’s central executive committee held a meeting of its secretaries at the party president’s Dhanmondi office on Wednesday. Awami League lawmakers from Dhaka and leaders of affiliate organisations attended the meeting, the party’s deputy office secretary Biplob Barua said. Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader directed the participants to gather a huge number of people in the rally, said Sujit Roy Nandi, the party’s reliefs and welfare secretary. Quader claimed on November 13 that his party was not going to arrange counter-programmes against the BNP. Awami League Presidium Member Kazi Zafar Ullah said they were not thinking about the BNP’s programme. “We are not eager to arrange programmes in response to the BNP,” he said. “The Awami League is trying to increase votes to win the next elections.”