The BNP has got down to motivational consultation with its component organisations to cement the political cohesion of the 18-party combine to counter the Awami League’s move to split the alliance with Khaleda Zia still hell-bent on not joining the “all-party” cabinet.
A number of alliance leaders told the Dhaka Tribune that the government had tried to lure them into joining the upcoming elections but all of them had refused to leave the alliance.
The main opposition has planned to employ its maximum strength and to this end it has split the capital into eight zones to intensify the ongoing movement in the capital from next week.
“None has left the alliance and no one will leave it,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP acting secretary general, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Meanwhile, BNP insiders said the alliance was likely to announce a mass demonstration or siege programme to Election Commission offices across the country for Sunday or Monday. The announcement would be made at today’s demonstration at Suhrawardy Udyan.
A senior leader, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the alliance would go for non-stop hartal or blockade programmes after the announcement of the election schedule.
The programmes were discussed at a meeting of the party’s senior leaders with Khaleda at her Gulshan office last night.
On Wednesday night, a delegation led by Liberal Democratic Party General Secretary Redwan Ahmed met with Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office.
“We informed madam [Khaleda] about the government’s offer. We assured her that we were with the alliance and would not quit it,” Shahadat Hossain Selim, joint secretary general of the LDP, said.
“Everyone will be evaluated at the right time,” Selim quoted Khaleda as saying to him.
The ruling party leaders attempted to persuade a number of 18-party alliance leaders to bring them into the electoral race. The BNP has already talked to them and they assured they would not quit the alliance, said party insiders.
When contacted, Andaleeve Rahman Partha told the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday that he had been approached by the ruling party to join the newly formed cabinet but he had refused the proposal.
“If anyone leaves the alliance, he will be nowhere. The relation with the BNP is around 16 years old. We formed the four-party alliance and now it is 18-party alliance. The tie between the alliance partners is stronger than any other times,” he said.
A senior leader said Khaleda Zia had taken the leaders of the component organisations with her during the visit to President Abdul Hamid just to give them the perception of how important they were in the alliance.
Nationalist Democratic Party Chief Gulam Mortuza said he had got the offer from the government but he had not responded.
“Ruling party leaders even a minister contacted me several times to convince me to join the election but I told them that I had been with the 18-party alliance and would be with it,” he said adding that a government’s minister communicated with him on November 14.
As part of its move to consolidate the alliance and the party as well BNP senior leaders also held talks with reformist leaders who have been pushed to the sideline because of their support to the military-backed caretaker government in 2007, said a party insider.
A number of reformist leaders too met one of BNP stalwarts Sadeque Hossain Khoka at his residence recently, he added.
A total of eight senior leaders were given the responsibility of eight strategic area of the capital to make the party programmes a success.
ASM Hannan Shah will lead the anti-government campaign in Kafrul, cantonment and Gulshan zone, Mirza Abbas in Motijheel, Khilgaon and Sabujbagh zone, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy in Mohammadpur, Adabar and Darus Salam zone, Nazrul Islam Khan in Tejgaon and Banani zone, Sadeque Hossain Khoka in Sutrapur, Kotwali, Bangshal, Gendaria and Wari zone, Amanullah Aman in Lalbagh, Nababganj and Hazaribagh, Barkatullah Bulu in Uttarkhan and Dakhinkhan while Salahuddin Ahmed in Demra, Shampur, Jatrabari and Kadamtali.
