Bangladesh News

In-party backstage negotiations are on to keep two major political parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, consolidated, keeping the conformists and dissidents in the fold.
The two parties are likely to work out strategies over joining the dialogues on electoral reforms with the Election Commission after Eid-ul-Fitr.
‘The party leaders have started communicating with each other to narrow the gap created earlier over in-party reforms,’ Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age on Thursday.
The acting Awami League general secretary, Syed Ashraf Hossain, spoke to the tune Matia did. ‘The gap between the party leaders, created earlier on some specific issues such as in-party reforms, is gradually narrowing.’
Some conformist leaders in the BNP and some followers of its expelled secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who was expelled by the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, before her arrest on September 3, are also in contact with people in the party to bridge the gap that was created after he had floated his idea of in-party reforms and his expulsion from the organisation.
‘We are in touch with them,’ the BNP’s joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan, known for his conformist views, told New Age on Thursday.
Bhuiyan on October 3 spoke for a united BNP burying all the differences of opinion within the party to ensure its victory in the next general elections.
Bhuiyan has, meanwhile, rolled out two ideas on June 25 and July 12, seeking extensive amendment to the party constitution and the national constitution to bring about reforms within the party and in the state affairs.
Awami League presidium members Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta placed separate reforms proposals individually late June and early July.
The leaders of the two parties would hold formal and informal meetings after Eid to work out their plan to face the Election Commission after Eid-ul-Fitr.
‘The Awami League’s working committee will meet on October 22 to decide on joining the electoral reforms dialogue with the Election Commission and to make preparations in this regard,’ Matia Chowdhury said.
The BNP will work out its strategy only after being invited by the commission to talks. ‘We will consider if the BNP would be party to the dialogue sponsored by the commission only after being invited and knowing the agenda,’ the BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said.
According to the commission schedule, the Awami League would be invited to sit with the Election Commission on electoral reforms on November 4 and the BNP on November 22