The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday observed the first day of a three-day mass-contact campaign to win support for its non-cooperation movement against the government and boycotting the 'dummy' election.
BNP leaders and activists brought out cluster processions and distributed leaflets among people in different parts of the city, including Paltan, Shahbagh, Banglamotor, Badda, Uttara and Elephant Road.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the party, joined the leaflet distribution programme in Elephant Road and Bailey Road areas in the morning.
The BNP men dished out leaflets to commoners, including shopkeepers, pedestrians, rickshaw-pullers, transport workers and commuters, urging them to reject the polls.
Mr Rizvi said the countrymen would not cast their ballots amid intimidation to go to polling centres.
"The words the prime minister articulated yesterday (Wednesday) in Sylhet during the dummy election campaign is the language of terrorists," he said.
People would not go to vote on January 07 even if the government was threatening like this, he added.
There is no heroism in using state power to hold dummy elections with sharing constituencies among allies, according to the BNP leader.
The people have already rejected the ongoing election circus, Mr Rizvi said, adding that no one would go to polling centres except the ruling party and its allies.
Like-minded political parties, including the Gono Forum and the Bangladesh People's Party, also staged similar political activities.
Urging the people not to pay taxes and utility bills, the BNP called for non-cooperation against the government from last Wednesday.
It will hold a countrywide blockade programme on Sunday following the three-day campaign that concludes tomorrow (Saturday).
During a separate virtual press briefing in the evening, Mr Rizvi accused the government of continuing its repression against BNP men by wholesale arrests and giving verdicts on false cases. "They (Awami League) are working like a Gestapo force," the BNP leader alleged.
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