There are no major changes in the newly formed central committee of ruling Awami League. However, three presidium members of the previous committee were left out this time. Of them, Nurul Islam Nahid was elected a presidium member in the last council. Abdul Mannan, who served as a presidium member for two terms, has been left out this time. Ramesh Chandra Sen also didn’t get a berth in the committee this time.
There are a total of 19 posts, including the president and general secretary, in the presidium committee, as per the constitution of Awami League. One of these posts was already vacant. Three of the presidium members were axed, which raised the number of vacant posts to four.
Former president of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, has been newly included in the presidium committee. The remaining three vacancies will be filled later.
Besides, the party has 34 secretaries. Of them, the labour affairs secretary and youth and sports affair secretary posts remain vacant. No one has been given the responsibility of these two posts. Habibur Rahman had been in this post since 2009. He was dropped from the post this time after more than a decade. Harunur Rashid held the post of youth and sports affairs secretary in the previous committee.
The relief and social welfare affairs secretary of the last committee, Sujit Roy Nandi has been promoted to the organising secretary post. Shakhawat Hossain Shafique was the organising secretary in the previous committee, but he has been axed this time.
On the other hand, Sujit Roy Nandi has been replaced by Aminul Islam, former deputy publicity secretary. The post of deputy publicity secretary is vacant at the moment. In all, three posts of secretaries are vacant now.
There are no changes in the posts of joint general secretaries. Besides, the names of 28 executive members of the central committee have not been declared yet. Awami League president Sheikh Hasina said these posts of executive members would be filled after the meeting of the presidium committee. The total number of posts in the central committee of Awami League is 81.
The names of the members of the advisory council of the party have also been announced in the closing session of the 22nd triennial council of the Awami League on Saturday. No one from the previous committee was ousted from the committee. Nurul Islam Nahid, Abdul Mannan Khan and Ramesh Chandra Sen, who were removed from the presidium, have been made the members of the advisory council.
Earlier, prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 22nd national council by hoisting the national flag and releasing pigeons and balloons at 10.30am at the historic Suhrawardy Udyan, amid tight security.
The electoral session of the council started at around 3.00pm at the Engineers Institution Auditorium where Sheikh Hasina was elected the president of the party for 10th consecutive times and Obaidul Quader was elected the general secretary for the third time in a row.
After being elected the president and general secretary of the party, they took the stage and declared the names of the remaining members of the newly formed committee.