The government is ‘uneasy’ over the absence of a big political party like the BNP in Parliament, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader has said.
He said the BNP and its allies had committed a ‘grave mistake’ by boycotting the 10th general election.
Led by the BNP, the 19-Party Alliance had been agitating for a non-party caretaker government’s supervision of the national polls.
As a result of the boycott, over half of the parliament’s 300 seats returned winners uncontested and the Awami League formed the government for a second successive term.
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“The BNP boycotted the polls and failed to make its agitation a success. The government is uncomfortable over the BNP’s absence in the House,” Quader told journalists on Friday while visiting the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Trishal on Friday.
“[Had they contested the polls] they could have at least emerged as the Opposition party,” he observed.
Quader lauded the BNP’s ‘decision’ to take part in the Upazila Parishad polls.
“They have branded the government illegal but are coming forward to contest in the Upazila Parishad elections. We welcome them,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Quader had opened the Trishal-Sutia bridge, built at a cost of Tk 52 million.
Source: Bd news24