By: The Daily Star Staff Correspondent
BNP leader Nazmul Huda yesterday announced his resignation as party Chairperson Khaleda Zia had not accepted his proposal to invite the prime minister to a dialogue on the caretaker government issue.
Inside the party there are some bad elements who are influencing Khaleda, he said, adding that he wanted the party to get rid of them. He was speaking at a press briefing at his chamber in the capital.
He said that being outside the party he would conduct a cleansing drive and that he wanted to bring back those who had been close associates of the party founder and late president Ziaur Rahman, into the opposition.
“I want to see the party become stronger under the leadership of Khaleda Zia,” he noted.
Before journalists Huda read out his resignation letter which, he said, he would submit to the chairperson and urge her to accept.
“I had hoped you would show us how to protect the country from anarchy and go for a dialogue,” he said, adding that according to the constitution a changeover in government should happen through a peaceful election but the ongoing oust-government movement was unconstitutional.
Alluding to party leader Moudud Ahmed, who was vice-president and prime minister during military dictator HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party’s regime in the 1980s, Huda said, “I have no intention to do politics in a BNP led by a man from the Jatiya Party.”
In the letter, he warned Khaleda, saying, “You have already noticed how he [Moudud] has detached you from the army.”
Replying to a query, he said he would return to the party if it freed itself of those who were trying to cause a split in it. He ruled out the possibility of floating a new political party. “The BNP is my first and will be my last destination,” he added.
It may be recalled that on May 23, the former communications minister declared that he would quit the party if Khaleda did not invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a dialogue over the caretaker issue by June 5.
Huda was once expelled from the BNP on November 21, 2010 for violating party discipline. At the time, he was a vice-chairman of the party and the president of its Dhaka district unit.
The BNP standing committee on April 6 last year gave him back his primary membership, but he was not reinstated in other party posts.
Source: The Daily Star
