Bangladesh News

The ruling BNP is now poised to gear up organisational activities across the country as its tenure nears the end.
To face the crucial period after handover of power to a caretaker government in October, the party high command is focusing on further strengthening the party from grassroots to central level, party sources said.

Top leaders of the BNP and its student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) have already begun views exchange meetings with grassroots level leaders and workers to finalise the strategy for facing the challenges during the caretaker government’s tenure. Leaders of the party’s other wings like Juba Dal and Krishak Dal are also preparing to organise such meetings with the grassroots level leaders.

Side by side with organisational activities, the BNP also wants to have a dominant position in street programmes. The party has announced a series of programmes including procession and rally for the next two weeks. It plans to hold a grand rally that the prime minister will address before handover of power.

“Prime minister will go to the Bangabhaban to hand over power after addressing a rally of 2.5 million people in Dhaka,” Mayor and city BNP President Sadeque Hossain Khoka said at a recent party rally.

Meanwhile, after more than 12 years, the party has decided to hold a national executive committee (NEC) meeting on August 26. The NEC last met in 1993. Even before the 2001 general election, it did not hold any meeting. But this time the party high-ups are serious about an NEC meet and they plan to give specific directives to the party rank and file on their course of action during the caretaker government’s tenure.

Prime Minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia will continue her views exchange meetings with grassroots level leaders and workers of the party. At the meetings already held, she asked them to go door to door to ensure the party’s success in the coming election. She advised them to remain particularly alert after handover of power to a caretaker government, party insiders said.

“BNP leaders and workers will ensure its strong position at field level after power handover,” party Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told a rally at Muktangon in the capital last week. “If the opposition wants to implement its proposals during caretaker government’s tenure, it must have to discuss with us at that time also.”

The next election will show which party has a strong footing among the people and which party has not, influential BNP leader Tarique Rahman said in a recent TV interview.

The BNP high command has meantime instructed party workers to step up mass contact in preparation for the next election to be held by January next year, party sources said.

The party has assessed that many of its candidates were defeated in the last election due to intra-party conflicts and wrong selection of candidates.