Allies complain of AL's big brother attitude
Differences have surfaced in the 14-party ruling alliance, as Awami League kept its partners in the dark on the issue of the just concluded city elections.
Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), a major ally, even skipped yesterday's alliance meeting in an apparent protest of AL's contesting the election unilaterally without discussing the matter with others.
The rest of the parties attended the meeting but they too expressed frustration over AL's attitude towards its partners, meeting sources said.
About boycott of the meeting, JSD general secretary Sharif Nurul Ambia told The Daily Star that his party first wanted to discuss the issue of city polls in its own forum before discussing it in the alliance meeting. "Every party has its own ideology, and the city election is a sensitive issue," he said.
JSD, which has six lawmakers and one minister (Information Minister
Hasanul Haq Inu) in the government, initially backed two mayoral candidates in the two Dhaka city corporations.
Later, JSD-backed mayoral candidate in Dhaka south Shahidul Islam quitted the race and threw his support behind the AL candidate while the second one, Nader Chowdhury, contested.
JSD and some other partners also had candidates for the councillor posts.
The 14-party meeting held at AL chief's Dhanmondi office mainly discussed the city polls and the results. Tariqat Federation Chairman Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandari presided over the meeting.
Sources said the Workers Party of Bangladesh and National Awami Party (NAP) also expressed their disappointment over the city election at the meeting.
Workers Party politburo member Anisur Rahman Mollick told the meeting that no discussion took place within the alliance although AL assured them of discussing the matter before finalising candidates. He termed AL's stand unfortunate.
Sources said NAP general secretary Enamul Haque express frustration over AL's "go-it-alone policy", saying the alliance's decisions were not implemented while AL did not discuss any major issue with its partners.
He also said only four partners of the combine had participation in the government and the parliament.
Nazibul Bashar alleged that there was no coordination among the partners for Dhaka city polls.
FREE, FAIR POLLS
Briefing reporters after the meeting, 14-party spokesperson Mohammad Nasim said BNP boycotted the city election to make it controversial.
Claiming that the city polls were free, fair and neutral, the AL leader also said, "One or two isolated incidents might have occurred during the polls. Election to local government bodies even claims lives. But such incidents did not take place in this election."
He also said AL-backed candidates won in three city polls because the party avoided mistakes and took lessons from past faults from five other city corporation polls.
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