Staff Reporter :
The grassroots leaders of the BNP are seriously annoyed with the central leaders, particularly those from Dhaka, for their failure and treacherous role during anti-government movement. They want exclusion of the treacherous and hypocritical leaders from the next central committee of the party.
The grassroots leaders expressed their annoyance and raised allegation in their speeches at the BNP’s sixth national council on Saturday night held in the city’s Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB). BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia heard the speeches attentively.
At least 16 party grassroots leaders took part in the open discussion before concluding speech of the BNP Chief. Barisal (North) district general secretary Quddusur Rahman, Munshiganj’s Tongibari Thana BNP president Monirul Haque Moni, Humayun Kabir of Gazipur’s Kaliakoir and Mamunur Rashid Mamun from Rangamati Sadar are among the grassroots leaders who took part in the open discussion.
All of them alleged that the party’s movement was unsuccessful because of failure of leaders in Dhaka. “We don’t want to see the hypocritical leaders in the upcoming committee. Please, appreciate dedicated and tested leaders in the new central committee,” said Mamunur Rashid Mamun.
In her concluding speech, Khaleda Zia supported the grassroots’ allegations and assured them that she will take their opinions before taking party’s serious programmes. “I agree with you that the way you waged movement at the grassroots, Dhaka leaders failed to do that here,” she said.
The BNP Chief urged the party’s councillors and the grassroots leaders not to indulge in business over making party committees in different levels. “Form committee with honest and good people, dropping corrupt, bad elements and traitors,” she said.
In the indoor session of the council, the BNP’s councillors approved a proposal for amending the party’s Constitution. According to the amended Constitution, the BNP leaders will not be able to hold more than one party-related post from now.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan placed the proposals for the amendments before the councillors.
The councillors also endorsed a proposal for forming 25 sub-committees on different sectors, including finance, health, education, foreign, environment, and women and ethnic minority affairs. They also approved proposals for increasing the number of vice-chairman posts from 17 to 35. The councillors also endorsed some other proposals, including increasing the size of executive committee.
Meanwhile, indiscipline and mismanagement to some extent were reported during the council session on Saturday. BNP leaders said that the hassle between the workers and supporters took place due to heavy rush. Many councillors, invited guests, delegates and journalists faced difficulties to enter the venue.
The council started at 10:00 AM, while the councillors started entering the venue from early morning. Just before the beginning of the council, many participants went to the entrance gate. But they saw that the gate was locked and hundreds of delegates were waiting there. There were some discipline committee members, but they were busy to get their favourite councillors.
The councillors blamed the discipline committee members for the unexpected situation. They said, the committee was fully responsible for the chaos.
