Senior BNP leaders seek party’s pre-election roadmap

Vice-chairmen and Advisory Council members of BNP in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday urged the party’s policymakers to come up with a roadmap to deal with issues ahead of the next general election.

A party vice-chairman present at the meeting said 62 vice-chairmen and advisors participated in the meeting, while 28 of them gave their opinions about how BNP should get ready for an anti-government movement and the next general election.

He said they also advised the party’s policymakers to overhaul the party and its associate bodies under the leadership of dedicated and brave leaders.

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“Our vice-chairmen and advisers also suggested our high-command to give importance to the issue of constituting the next Election Commission. We said our party should keep in contact with other parties to mount serious pressure on the government to form a neutral Election Commission and restore polls-time election government system,” the BNP leader said.

He said most of the leaders said that the party should launch a strong movement to have Khaleda Zia freed from jail before the next polls.

This was the first meeting of the BNP policymakers with the party’s central leaders as part of their planned series of meetings with BNP rank and file to work out their next course of action ahead of the next general election.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir along with Standing Committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku was present at the meeting.

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The party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman virtually joined it from London.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Fakhrul said they have taken the opinions of the senior leaders about the party’s next course of action.

“The meeting discussed the current political situation in the country and the party’s organizational situation,“ he said.

Fakhrul said they will brief the media elaborately about the meeting outcomes after two other scheduled meetings with the party central leaders.

The BNP policymakers will also hold a meeting with the party’s senior joint secretaries general, organizing secretaries and assistant organizing secretaries on Wednesday and another with the leaders of different associate bodies on Thursday.

BNP formed a 502-member national executive committee, including 35 vice-chairmen, through its sixth national council on March 19, 2016. There are also 74 members in the Advisory Council.