Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
The BNP is yet to reconstitute its different front bodies, including Juba Dal, Chhatra Dal and Mahila Dal. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia wants new leadership in her party’s front bodies, but she can’t do it due to internal feud.
Begum Zia has advised senior leaders of the party’s
front bodies to bring in new leadership to wage a tougher anti-government movement. She also suggested that senior leaders would be kept in the advisory committees, as young leadership will come in the front bodies, party insiders said.
She came down hard on the leaderships of Juba Dal and Chhatra Dal simultaneously with the Dhaka city committee of the BNP for their poor performance in the street movement prior to
the January-5 election. In this backdrop, she wants to change the leadership of the front bodies. She had assigned some leaders of her party to work in this regard, they said.
The central committee of Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, labour wing of the BNP, was reconstituted in last April. “Juba Dal, Mahila Dal, Chhatra Dal and all other organisations should bring in new leaders to gear up the party activities,” said a senior BNP leader, quoting Khaleda Zia.
Khaleda Zia wanted to dissolve the committee of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) for its poor performance on the campus and across the country. So far, she could not do it.
Some JCD leaders said that that the new committee of the student wing is coming soon, as a list of the probable leaders of the upcoming committee has already been provided to Khaleda Zia. Some of the JCD leaders alleged that BNP’s student affairs secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie and former JCD president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku are creating hindrance on way to formation of a new JCD committee. Talking to The New Nation, Annie and Tuku refuted the allegation. They, however, said that the new committee would be announced at the right time.
Khaleda Zia is also thinking to bring major change in the leadership of the Juba Dal, as the body is considered important for street movement. Juba Dal president Moazzem Hossain Alal said that the tenure of the incumbent committee has already expired. “So it is usual that the body will go for new committee. But we are failing to take the process of the new committee due to hostile political situation,” he said.
BNP failed to reconstitute is main body?the national executive committee?although the tenure of the present committee expired 18 months ago (December 8, 2012) as per the party’s constitution. The BNP held its last and fifth national council on December 8 in 2009 and elected its national executive committee for a three-year term.
BNP joint secretary general Mohammad Shahjahan said that the party tried to hold the sixth council last year but could not do so for various reasons. He declined to make any comment when asked why the party was not taking initiative now to hold the party council.
