A day after her meeting with party policymakers, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is going to sit with the top leaders of the 18-party alliance tonight (Wednesday night) to finalise the opposition’s next course of action to force the government for arranging the next polls under a non-party administration.
The meeting is scheduled to begin around 8:30pm with Khaleda Zia in the chair at her Gulshan office.
Earlier, leaders of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Bangladesher Samajtanrik Dal (BSD) also met opposition leader Khaleda Zia at 7.30 pm.
Meanwhile, after the end of the opposition’s 60-hour nonstop nationwide hartal programme on Tuesday night, Khaleda, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, had a meeting the BNP Standing committee members.
Party sources said the BNP chief will convey the 18-party leaders about the decision of the BNP standing committee and finalise the next action programme after elaborately discussing the country’s latest political situation and the prospect of the dialogue.
Meeting sources said the BNP policymakers decided to enforce a three-day nonstop nationwide road and railway blockade programme on Monday to force the government to concede to their demand.
The opposition alliance may also hold rallies on Saturday across the country, including the capital, demanding the release of the opposition leaders and activists arrested from October 25 to October 29 and protesting the killing of opposition men during the period.
However, the action programmes will be finalised at tonight’s meeting between with the top leaders of the 18-party alliance and Khaleda.
On Tuesday night’s meeting, most BNP standing committee members opined that the dialogue offer is nothing but a stage-managed drama of the government to mislead people, meeting sources said.
They said the government’s intention about the dialogue is not honest as it provided the media with the audiotape of the telephone conversation between the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader. The BNP policymakers voiced anger over the telecast of the conversation.
“The dialogue is a dead issue it has no prospect,” a BNP policymaker told UNB.
The standing committee members also said BNP should not volunteer for the dialogue if the government does not communicate further for the proposed talks.
They, however, said the opposition leader should respond positively if the Prime Minister again invites her to dialogue with specific agenda of polls-time non-party government. Otherwise, the BNP policymakers said, the opposition should force the government to bow down to their demand through harder action programmes.
He said most of the standing committee members opined that the government will not soften its stance if the opposition does not mount pressure on it with tougher action programmes.
“We’ve decided to pressurise the government with regular harsher programmes to concede to our demand. That’s why we’re going to enforce the blockade programme from Monday,” said another BNP standing committee member wishing anonymity.
The highest policymaking body of BNP also decided to go for tougher programmes like non-cooperation soon after the Election Commission announces the election schedule.
The 18-party is likely to announce harsher programmes like laying siege to the Secretariat, the Election Commission and the Prime Minister’s office after November 10 if the EC declares the schedule for a unilateral election.
Source: UNB Connect