Bangladesh Kalyan Party chairman Maj Gen (retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim floated a new alliance styled 'Jukto Front' with two other parties on Wednesday.
He also announced to the media his new 'king's coalition' with Jatiya Party (jackfruit) and Bangladesh Muslim League (hand) to join the 12th parliamentary election scheduled for January 07.
To this end, Mr Ibrahim convened a press conference at the National Press Club.
Mr Ibrahim said they would join the 2024 general election in alliance in a bid to make it acceptable to the nation and to the world.
"I hope the election will be fair and acceptable," he said, adding that they were grateful to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as they learned politics from them.
"You can't learn politics alone," he stated.
Until the floatation of the new political front, the Syed Ibrahim-led Kalyan Party was a part of the ongoing anti-government movement with the BNP and other like-minded parties.
His political U-turn and the announcement of floating a new alliance have thus become a talk of the town.
The Kalyan Party chief said, "I hope the next election will be freer and fairer than any other election in the past."
He called upon the government not to close the door of dialogue so that all the political parties could join the polls.
However, Mr Ibrahim was highly vocal against the present government in the previous months.
At a programme last June, he asserted that the countrymen would not accept any election without a neutral caretaker government.
Asked why his party has now decided to join the polls under the present government, he replied: "We're going to participate in the election as we couldn't cope with the government."
"Our demand was that we wouldn't join the polls without a caretaker government," he continued.
"As our demand was not realised, we have two options: keep mum or take part in the election. So, we've decided to join the election and contribute to the nation."
Mr Ibrahim, however, said his party would not request the BNP to join the polls and rather request the ruling Awami League for sitting in an election dialogue.
He, however, opined that it would be difficult to overcome the present political deadlock without dialogue among the two main rivals.
Mr Ibrahim is one of the top leaders of the alliance. The party was a component of BNP-led alliance in 2018 parliamentary election.
Jatiya Party secretary general Md Shahriar Alam and Bangladesh Muslim League chairman Sheikh Zulfiqar Bulbul Chowdhury also spoke there.
Meanwhile, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said a section of politicians sold their souls at a time when the countrymen were under the shackles of a mafia.
These greedy politicians are out to gain politically.
Mr Rizvi made the observations at virtual press briefing on Wednesday.
He made the remarks at a crucial juncture when some leaders left the BNP and floated Trinamool BNP and Wednesday's new front.
Mr Rizvi, however, did not mention the names of the leaders who have so far deserted the BNP to feed their parochial interests.
They have turned a somersault, he said, also labelling them as treacherous politicians who will be thrown into the scrap of history.
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