AL adamant it won't make any concession to BNP
Ruling Bangladesh Awami League has devised a strategy to keep opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) busy with its own demands until the announcement of the next election schedule.
The incumbents will rather use the government machinery to make various sections happy by taking populist measures before the elections and drum up development attainments.
AL leaders say they still have no plan to accept any of the BNP’s demands - dissolution of parliament before the election, formation of a neutral polls-time government and deployment of the army with magistracy power at polling stations.
Once again on Wednesday, the AL president, prime minister Sheikh Hasina rejected the possibility of any dialogue with the opposition BNP.
The ruling camp is confident no scope will be left for the BNP to form public opinion in favour of its demands.
There is no chance either of the release of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, in jail since February, before the elections expected to be held in December, AL leaders added.
The ruling party leaders also believe the BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman will be under further pressure once the verdict of 21 August grenade attack case is announced on 10 October.
The BNP has recently discussed with the United Nations and the United States officials the issue of holding a free and fair election under a neutral government The opposition is also trying to forge a greater national unity with other political parties to compel the government to accept its demands.
BNP leaders have reached the conclusion that a fair election is not possible under a party-government.
The AL leaders, however, termed ‘negative campaign’, the BNP’s talks with the international community. The AL camp is also launching campaign on political and diplomatic fronts against the BNP.
The AL senior leaders organised an early election campaign tour (Nirbachani Jatra) by a train to the northern region on 15 September. The AL leaders have also planned to organise a number of rallies during a similar journey to Chattogram next week. An election tour on the waterways is also on the cards.
According to party insiders, as part of the government’s plan to appease the voters, four projects have been awarded to the members of parliament (MP) to get support of religious groups and voters.
AL policymakers say they want to please different stakeholders in and outside of the government. Accordingly, there is a plan to keep bank interest rate at single digit so that the businesspeople are not unhappy.
As negative impression was created among the youths about the police and AL’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) during the quota protests, and movement for safe roads, initiatives have been taken to address such grievances. A government-sponsored quota reform committee on Monday recommended scraping quota for class I and II government jobs.
The government has taken initiative to enact the road transport law to address the resentment among the students created out of the death of two of their fellows in a road crash in Dhaka on 29 July.
Increase in the minimum wage for readymade garments (RMG) workers to Tk 8,000 from Tk 5,300 is claimed to be another such steps to make this large group happy.