After boycotting the last general election, Khaleda Zia’s efforts to bring political parties from across the spectrum together for the movement against the Awami League-led government now appears to be faltering.
Nationalist Democratic Front (NDF) – a new alliance led by Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu and comprising 11 parties, including some from the BNP-led 20-Party Alliance – will be launched on Thursday.
Nilu, who is the chief of National People’s Party (NPP), was expelled from the 20-Party Alliance in August for attending the prime minister’s Iftar at Ganabhaban.
But NDF’s emergence, at a time when the BNP is trying to expand the alliance, seems to have failed to raise concern in BNP and its allies.
BNP leaders have said that its alliance would become ‘garbage free’ with these parties that ‘exist only on paper’ leaving.
The BNP had expanded its Four-Party Alliance to an 18-Party Alliance during the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government’s last tenure in a bid to boost its movement for a poll-time non-partisan government.
Right after the Jan 5 polls boycotted by the BNP and its allies, the alliance became 19-Party Alliance
Nilu, who is about to become NDF chairman, said, “Our decision is final. We will announce it through a press conference on Thursday.”
However, he said, “We’re not announcing that we’ll get out of the 20-party Alliance, we’re just announcing a new alliance.”
NPP acting secretary general Abdul Hai Mandal said the parties in the new alliance are National Awami Party-NAP (Anwarul Haq), Muslim League (Zobaida Kader-Atik), National Democratic Party-NDP (Alamgir Majumder), Bhasani Mancha (Momtaz Chowdhury), Bangladesh Islamic Party (Abdur Rashid Prodhan), Labour Party (Sikandar Ali ) and Insaf Party (Shahid Chowdhury).
Of these, Muslim League, Islamic Party and Labour Party are in the 20-party Alliance. But like NPP, some of them are leaving behind a faction in the old alliance.
‘Garbage is going out’
BNP standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman said BNP was not concerned about the new alliance.
He dubbed these parties ‘garbage’ and “fallen from ideological politics” and remarked, “It’s better that they’re leaving.”
“BNP is neither concerned nor curious. These were some profit-seekers who were here for personal gains,” he said.
Mahbub believes the exit of these parties will not weaken the 20-party Alliance.
“That is out of question. Rather it is better that they leave. The alliance will be freed from some garbage,” he said.
Source: Bd news24