Bangladesh News

BNP high command is in a dilemma over how to handle the worsening conflict between factions of the party’s Dhaka City Unit, which has been without a committee for almost a year.

Meanwhile, it is crunch time for Khandaker Delwar Hossain as a number of senior party leaders are bidding for the BNP secretary general post.

BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain dissolved the Dhaka City Unit committee in June last year, when the BNP chairperson was behind bars, following intra-party conflict between reformists and pro-Khaleda factions.

The party high-ups could not form any committee due to escalating internal conflict between factions led by Dhaka City Corporation Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and former mayor Mirza Abbas. This is stalling unit activities, said unit insiders.

While talking to The Daily Star, BNP Joint Secretary General Goyeshwar Chandra Roy yesterday blamed “over-enthusiasm” of some workers. “A group of workers who always want to serve their own leaders are behind the conflict.”

“It is natural that leaders will try to show their political strength to ensure their position in the committee but it will not continue after announcement of the committee,” he said.

Against this backdrop, the party is going to hold a rally in the capital on Saturday marking May Day. This would be the first public meeting of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the city after December-29 election debacle.

BNP is facing serious problems in organising the rally due to the weakness of Dhaka City Unit.

“There is no committee for Dhaka City Unit even though it is the most important unit of the party,” said a leader of the unit.

Most of pro-BNP ward councillors of Dhaka City Corporation are with Khoka while some senior leaders including a member of the BNP standing committee is backing Mirza Abbas.

Khoka’s supporters alleged that the party secretary general is backing Abbas while Abbas’s men claim that they would not tolerate any person in the city unit committee who sided with the reformist faction after January 11, 2007.

Meanwhile, a group of senior leaders of BNP are mounting pressure on party leadership to bring changes to the post of secretary general. They believe Khandaker Delwar Hossain failed to boost morale of party activists across the country.

Delwar is now facing competition for the post from some of his party colleagues who are taking advantages of the current “bad time” of the party.

Party insiders say that the current internal disputes created uncertainty over the success of the ongoing party reorganising initiatives.