Amid the unity factor looming overhead, the 18-party opposition alliance is planning to enforce another spell of four to five days’ countrywide hartal next week demanding a non-party election-time government.
Sources in the opposition said its chief Khaleda Zia was worried, as the government had reportedly made attempts to split the alliance by offering ministerial posts to some of its leaders.
She had assured the leaders of evaluating them once the alliance assumes power, added the sources.
At a meeting on Tuesday night, top opposition leaders also told Khaleda that they believed President Abdul Hamid could actually do little to solve the political crisis over the mode of polls-time government.
Therefore, the combine should beef up agitation to realise its demand, said sourced present in the meeting held in Khaleda’s Gulshan office after her meet with the President.
Accompanied by a 20-member delegation, Khaleda on Tuesday evening had met the president and asked him to do something for holding talks between the government and the opposition for a free, fair and participatory election under a non-party government.
In reply, the president told her that his power was limited, but he would do everything possible within his powers.
“We, therefore, have primarily decided to enforce four to five days’ hartal next week if the President does not do anything,” said a top leader of the opposition.
Since October 28, the opposition alliance has enforced 204 hours of hartal. This week it refrained from going for any more due to US official Nisha Desai Biswal’s visit to Dhaka.
Meanwhile, in the hour-long meeting on Tuesday night, Khaleda asked her alliance leaders about the government’s offer to join the polls-time cabinet.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at that time requested all to speak frankly, a top leader present in the meeting said.
Liberal Democratic Party President Col (retd) Oli Ahmed told the meeting, “It has already been made public that a minister had proposed me to join the cabinet, but I rejected outright.”
Shafiul Alam Prodhan, chief of Jatiya Gonotantrik Party, and Mustafizur Rahman Iran, chief of Bangladesh Labour Party, also alleged that the government had asked them to leave the alliance for benefits.
Bangladesh Jatiya Party Chairman Andaleeve Rahman Partho on Tuesday night told The Daily Star that he too assured the meeting of not leaving the alliance although the government had contacted him.
Khaleda, also the chairperson of the main opposition BNP, asked all alliance leaders to remain alert so that the government and its agents cannot lure them into double-crossing the combine, said meeting sources.
She also advised them to remain careful of “pro-government” media houses that were allegedly engaged in creating divisions among the alliance leaders.
Source: The Daily Star
