Bangladesh News

The BNP failed to announce its district unit convening committees last week because of grouping and lobbying by top-level leaders for key posts, causing resentment among the party’s district unit leaders.

A number of grassroots-level leaders requesting anonymity told The Daily Star that some top party leaders are out to ‘do business’ over the posts causing delay in announcement of the committees.

Asked whether it is true, BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said such accusations ‘may not be baseless’ and further delay in announcing the committees might give rise to suspicion among party men.

“The committees should be announced soon to prevent grouping, lobbying and nepotism,” he said.

Mahbubur pointed out the illness of party’s Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain as a major reason for the delay. The committees will be announced after the secretary general signs the necessary papers.

He, however, said the party has already finalised some instructions for the new committees.

BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Moudud Ahmed earlier told journalists that the committees would be announced by last week.

When asked about the party’s failure to announce district committees, Khandaker Mosharraf last evening told The Daily Star, “The committees have been finalised but I don’t know the reason for the delay. Does it take a week to type the list?”

Party’s Joint Secretary General Goyeshwar Chandra Roy said those involved in the decision-making process know the reason for the delay in announcing the committees.

Party insiders said resentment among district-level leaders spread due to frequent changes in names for the posts of conveners and joint conveners of many district committees.

“Many field-level leaders are now in the capital to persuade top party leaders to include their names in convening committees. Some are even trying to reach a deal with top leaders,” a district-level leader told The Daily Star preferring anonymity.

A district unit general secretary said the move to form convening committees inspired the party men but now they are worried about the standing committee’s slow pace of work.

Earlier, the BNP standing committee decided to announce the convening committees after dissolving all district committees by April 7. But it failed to implement the decision.

Later, the committee sat several times and finalised the names of conveners and a few joint conveners for district convening committees.

But it could not announce the names due to unhealthy competition among the party’s top leaders who are trying to establish control over the committees.