Outsmarted by the ruling coalition during its pre-polls movement that led to its January 5 election, BNP now focuses on putting its own house in order through a reshuffle in its leadership both at the centre and grassroots levels. The upcoming upazila elections, according to party senior leaders, are also expected to help the now out-of-parliament opposition party to tidy it up as it claims of enjoying greater popular support than the governing alliance. Talking to UNB, a number of BNP leaders said if things go well, including a good show in the local body polls, the BNP-led 19-party alliance will be able to bounce back in three months’ time to mount pressure on the new government through a tough but peaceful movement to hold a fresh election as soon as possible. “Taking lesson from the failures of our past movement, we’re now going to streamline our party before launching a fresh vigorous movement against the current illegal regime to force it to hold a fresh election,” said BNP standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah. Earlier at a crowded press conference in a city hotel on Tuesday, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia also said they are taking a bit of time to tidy up the party in the face government’s repressive acts against its leaders and activists and widespread arrest of party leaders. “But it won’t take too much time. We’ll soon announce our fresh course of action and gear up our movement to realise our demand.” Asked what actually meant Khaleda by telling tidying up the party, Hannan Shah said she hinted at reorganising the party and invigorating its leaders and activists by gearing up the organisational activities. He said BNP will recast the committees of the party’s different units and associate bodies by inducting dedicated and competent leaders replacing failed and inactive ones. The BNP leader said this time the party chairperson will strongly monitor the formation of all the committees so that no opportunist can manage a place there through lobbying. Echoing Hannan Shah, another BNP standing committee member Lt Gen Mahbubur Rahman, said as part of the move to tidy up the party, its national council is likely to be held in the last week of March or in mid-April after a hiatus of two years. He said tested and dedicated party men will be evaluated and picked for different important posts through the council. Besides, the BNP policymaker said full-fledged committees of all the units of the party, including that of Dhaka city, and associate bodies will be formed so that they can play a strong role in the upcoming anti-government movement with a greater responsibility. Mahbub said around 56 teams comprising party senior leaders have already been formed to visits party’s 75 organisational districts to rejuvenate the party grassroots leaders and activists alongside monitoring the upazila polls. BNP vice chairman Abdullah Al Noman said they are preparing both politically and organisationally for a successful movement. He said they will streamline the party to carry out the movement while work out effective strategies assessing their pervious mistakes and failures to face the government politically with increased public support. Noman said they first move through a soft line of action like holding rallies and demonstrations and will raise their voice against the government’s growing repressive acts, killing and forced disappearance to involve people in their movement and get their sympathy. “But, if the government sticks to its repressive guns, then we’ll intensify our movement with people’s strong support.” The trio think that the upazila election is a great opportunity for them to rebuild the party and rejuvenate its demoralised grassroots leaders and activists, and establish its influence on local politics after the January 5 national election boycotted by the BNP and its alliance partners. On January 19, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the first phase polls for 102 upazilas across the country. The commission will arrange the elections to the 487 upazilas countrywide in six phases by June this year. The BNP leaders said as there is no chance to go for a strong movement during the upazila polls, they will make the best use of the period in putting the party back on track. According to them, there is a strong possibility for the party to win polls in most local bodies if there is no election engineering and it will ultimately add a new dimension to their movement and justify their demand for holding a fresh election. They said if everything goes well as per their plan they will launch the fresh movement after the upazila elections. The three senior BNP leaders also warned that if the government manipulates the upazila polls they take to the streets using their all might and force it to quit. Meanwhile, the party’s standing committee members who sat in a meeting on Thursday night — the first since the January 5 election — elaborately analysed the Januray-5 election, the anti-government movement and its successes and failures. Most of the committee members were critical of the Dhaka city unit BNP’s role and viewed that the movement failed to achieve its desired results due to its frustrating poor performance. As the BNP chief supported their observation, the standing committee members suggested going for a major overhaul to strengthen the organisation and its other associate bodies. – UNB
