BNP leaders plan district tours to rejuvenate party

BNP is now trying to reinvent itself with a plan to rejuvenate the party rank and file with district tours by its senior leaders to have them ready for a decisive movement likely to be launched in mid-October or early November, reports UNB.
Keeping in mind all the reasons for the failure of their anti-government campaign before the January-5 election, Khaleda Zia's party this time wants to go for the final movement after reorganising the party's all units and associate bodies.
According to party senior leaders, they, during their tours of different districts, will energise the party men, try to resolve infightings and misunderstanding among them, make the lists of inactive leaders, put emphasis on reorganising party's different district units through holding councils and give them necessary directions for making the movement a success.
"We've made several teams headed by senior leaders for the district tours that started on August 21 and the organisational tours will continue until August 31. Many teams have already started their work and some others are preparing to embark upon," said BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
He said they want to hit the streets this time very carefully with well-thought-out plans after making the party leaders and activists fully ready. "Our central leaders are going to districts to rejuvenate the party men and unite the people of all walks of life to wage a fierce and united movement to force the government to quit and hold a fresh election."
After their visits, all the teams will submit separate reports to the party high command depicting its organisational conditions in the districts they are supposed to visit.
According to sources at the BNP's Nayapaltan Central office, party acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is leading the team visiting Manikganj and Munshiganj districts. He is scheduled to go to Munshiganj on Sunday.
Besides, party standing committee member Hannan Shah is designated to lead the Noakhali-Laxmipur team while Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman Panchagarh- Thakurgaon team, Moudud Ahmed Dhaka-Narayanganj team, Tariqul Islam Narail- Khulna team, Jamiruddin Sircar Dinajpur team, Abdul Moyeen Khan Faridpur-Madaripur team, MK Anwar Chittagong, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy Jessore-Jhenidah team, Rafiqul Islam Miah Mymensingh team and Nazrul Islam Khan Bogra-Rajshahi team.
Other senior leaders, including Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Selima Rahman, Abdullah Al Noman, Morshed Khan, Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, Osman Farroque, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Abdul Awal Mintoo, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, Fazlur Rahman Patal, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Aman Ullah Aman, Mizanur Rahman Minu, M Shahjahan, Barkatullah Bulu, Salauddin Ahmed, Asaduzzaman Ripon and Zainul Abedin Farroque will lead other district teams.
On completion of the district tours, according to the party insiders, BNP will hold a rally in the capital and announce its next course of action.
Contacted, BNP standing committee member Hannan Shah said they are going to visit districts as part of their preparation for a strong movement through intensifying their organisational activities.
Another report adds: BNP is planning to announce a programme protesting the government's move to restore parliament's power to impeach Supreme Court (SC) judges.
"The party high command is thinking to announce action programmes against the government's attempt to restore the power of removing judges by an unrepresentative parliament," said BNP Dhaka city unit convener Mirza Abbas.
Talking to reporters at his Shahjahanpur residence, he also claimed that the 20-party's two programmes, protesting Israeli offensive in Gaza and national broadcast policy, in the city were very successful as large number of people participated in those.
Abbas, also a BNP standing committee member, briefed the journalists about various issues relating to the formation of the new committee of the Dhaka city unit BNP and party's movement plan.
He alleged that the ruling party leaders are instigating the opposition leaders and activists to indulge in violence in a bid to file more 'false' cases.
"The government is provoking BNP saying the party is giving soft action programmes as it has no capacity to wage a strong movement.  They're doing this so that they can file fresh cases against BNP leaders and activists by instigating them," the BNP leader observed.
Abbas said BNP will never throw violent programmes that Awami League (AL) had resorted to before the 1/11-changeover in 2007. "We've no intention to return to power by killing people. We want people to bring us back to power."
Replaying to a question, he said they have made a good progress in making the committees of different units of the Dhaka city BNP.
"Our target is to make the Dhaka city BNP stronger and we're working hard to this end. We're organising it such a way so that we can move forward with a strong footing," Abbas said.
As his attention was drawn to AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam's comment that nothing will happen if Mirza Abbas stages a sit-in with 100 people, the BNP leader said, "I want to tell him allow me first to observe the sit-in with 100 people. You can see later what it actually yields!"
On July 18, a 52-member new convening committee of the Dhaka city unit BNP, led by Abbas, was formed asking it to constitute a full-fledged committee of the unit within two months.