Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has brushed aside criticisms against General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, being blamed for the party’s recent debacle in local elections.
Those who attended Awami League’s closed-door parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday told bdnews24.com Hasina rebuffed Ashraf’s detractors, saying, “The plotters are among us.”
The meeting was held at Hasina’s official residence, Ganabhaban.
Ashraf had alleged without naming anyone that some party MPs had become sluggish and needed to “become more active”, setting off a muffled commotion.
Sources said some of the lawmakers, however, reacted angrily, holding Ashraf responsible for the successive civic poll losses. “We lost the five elections due to his laziness,” the sources quoted the lawmakers as saying.
An emboldened MP from Khulna, Sohrab Ali Sana, urged Hasina to change the party spokesperson, inviting jeers from Ashraf’s close colleagues.
But Shamsul Hoque Chowdhury, Chittagong-11 MP, echoed Sana’s criticism, demanding a new person in Ashraf’s place.
Hasina, however, was in no mood to pull up Ashraf. “The plotters are among us. They criticised our ministers in Parliament first, letting the BNP pick up the cue,” she said.
This was Hasina’s first meeting with party MPs after the Awami League lost the five city corporation elections.
Source: bdnews24
