BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan on Sunday said it is a stupidity to think that BNP will join the polls if its chairperson Khaleda Zia is kept out of the election.
“It will be nothing but a stupidity to think that anyone of BNP will join the polls if its chairperson Khaleda Zia and senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman are kept out of the election process,” he said.
The senior BNP leader made this statement while
talking to newsmen after a meeting with the chief election commissioner, KM Nurul Huda, at the EC secretariat in the capital.
A BNP delegation led by Nazrul Islam Khan met the CEC and submitted the party’s amended constitution and the resolution of the party’s national council session held in 2016.
Nazrul Islam Khan told newsmen that the Election Commission thinks that the next polls would not be participatory if BNP boycotts it.
“We hope that the next elections will be free, fair and neutral. It will be a participatory one as well. Otherwise, it will be a farce in the name of election. We don’t want to participate in a farcical election,” he said.
He said the election in Bangladesh cannot be considered a participatory one if it is boycotted either by BNP and Awami League.
The BNP senior leader alleged that an effort is underway to convict Khaleda Zia, Tarique and some other innocent people without any reason.
“If something like that happens, the aspiration of a participatory election will be hampered. We hope nothing like that will happen,” he added.
Nazrul Islam Khan made the remarks at a time when a makeshift court has fixed February 8 to pronounce its verdict on a graft case against BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
Political analysts and conscious people have kept eyes on the verdict as it is widely believed that Khaleda Zia might be convicted in the case to keep her away from the next general elections to be held in the yearend.
The country’s political arena has heated up once again with the two main contenders for power — BNP and AL — at loggerheads centering the verdict.
