As there’s only four months left for the national elections, BNP. The largest political party of the country will go on within various preparation-based programmes during this period. The party has started its activities with more than a dozen issues ahead of electoral challenges. Their 4-month long programmes include the return of their acting chairman Tarique Rahman in the country, finalizing of party candidates according to constituencies, presenting party manifesto, elections-centered mass communications across the country, managing the vote casting and ensuring appropriate results.
The decision-making forum of the party has confirmed the above information.
According to the information, this largest party will not engage in conflict, confrontation or launch counter-programs with any party for political reasons before the national elections in February. Instead, it was decided to complete final election-centric preparations. BNP wants to focus on selecting candidates, promoting positive work by highlighting the party's 31 points, going door to door to win the hearts of voters, making election promises and preparing a timely election manifesto. The party has decided to focus its activities on elections for four consecutive months before the elections.
Former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar is going to London in two to three days as part of the preparations to bring Tarique Rahman back to the country. He will meet the party's acting chairman Tarique Rahman in London and inform him about the overall preparations for his return to the country. After that, the date of Tarique Rahman's return to the country will be finalized.
Party leaders believe that the situation will completely change if Tarique Rahman returns to the country with the national elections ahead. Therefore, initiatives are being taken to bring the acting chairman back to the country as soon as possible. The decision was taken at the last meeting of the National Standing Committee, the party's highest policy-making forum, at the BNP Chairperson's political office in Gulshan in the capital. The meeting was chaired by the party's acting chairman Tarique Rahman, who joined virtually from London. The party's secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was also connected virtually. Members of the Standing Committee participated in the meeting.
In this meeting of the National Standing Committee, a detailed discussion was held on the joint program announcement of several parties including Jamaat-e-Islami. If there is no consensus on the July Charter, what the reaction could be if the July Charter is not agreed upon, or what the consequences could be if the government imposes unresolved reforms— all things like these were discussed in the meeting.
Responding to a question in this regard, National Standing Committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said, “BNP believes in stability in politics. If someone wants to destabilize the situation, they will have to pay political prices.”
This BNP Standing Committee member said that there will not be consensus everywhere. There is no problem in making some demands. But for that, they have to go to the people.
Another member of the standing committee said, “It would be appropriate to respond through political statements with field programs as opposed to the political tactics of the opposition. BNP believes that if the election atmosphere picks up at the field level, all the conspiracies and unreasonable demands of the opposition will disappear.”
BNP Standing Committee Member Salahuddin Ahmed said regarding the movement demanding PR from some Islamic parties including Jamaat, "Political parties have the right to protest for their demands. However, will PR be determined based on how many public meetings we held on the streets, how many processions we took out? There is a process for that; we have to come to the negotiating table. We are at that negotiating table. That is still ongoing. BNP wants to make full preparations for the elections in the first half of February by utilizing the remaining four months. To this end, BNP policymakers are also considering creating a voter-friendly climate through meetings at the field level. Work has also begun on quickly preparing an up-to-date election manifesto as an election pledge or promise. They have already started fulfilling the responsibilities given to experts in various sectors including education, health, finance and trade, foreign affairs, and employment to prepare the manifesto.
Regarding the formulation of the party's election manifesto, Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed said along with the promise to fulfill public expectations, there will be a reform and realistic manifesto this time.
BNP has started the process of finalizing single candidates for 70 to 80 percent of the 300 seats nationwide before the announcement of the schedule for the upcoming 13th National Parliament elections. Specific responsibilities have been distributed to the leaders concerned in this regard. They have started checking the popularity of potential candidates. The actual picture of the field level based on constituenclies is being collected from different wings. Acting chairman Tarique Rahman is sitting with the records of all of them. The issue of finalizing the candidates will be confirmed before the schedule. However, the context this time is a little different. For this, various changes are being made in the party's decisions. Preparations for selecting single candidates based on constituency are underway this time after making various calculations.
In the previous meeting of the Standing Committee, a policy decision was taken to start field programs to create a wave of national elections across the country and make people election-oriented. But BNP refrained from field programs as the consensus commission's discussions with political parties on reforms were not completed.
Regarding the programs of some parties, including Jamaat, several members of BNP standing committee said that announcing the program while the discussions on the July Charter are ongoing is contradictory.
They raised the question and said, “We need to see who this movement is against. Is it against the interim government, or against the National Consensus Commission, or against BNP? We also need to look into whether this is a strategy to disrupt the elections.”
(Translated by Lutful Hoque)
