Gearing up For Movement, Polls: BNP moves to form 40,000 committees

The BNP is going to form 40,000 polling centre-based committees across the country as part of its preparations for the upcoming national elections and a movement demanding a non-partisan polls-time government.

Party insiders said the BNP's top brass had already asked the grassroots leaders to complete formation of the bodies by this month.

Each committee will be comprised of 200-250 members from the BNP and its front and associate organisations Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal, Mohila Dal, Swechhasebak Dal, Krishak Dal and Sramik Dal.

BNP senior leaders said the party's prospective MP candidates were forming the committees as per directives of the central leaders. The committees will start working soon after the announcement of the polls schedule, likely late next month.

Although the bodies would initially work for the release of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia from jail, those would also be tasked with guarding the polling stations to check vote-rigging, the leaders added.

The grassroots leaders have also been asked to form the committees of BNP and its front and associate bodies at the union, ward and thana levels.

BNP Organising Secretary Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu said, “We have instructed the district leaders to form 40,000 committees across the country. The committees can be called Sangram Committee or Election Preparation Committee.”

The size of the committees would depend on the population of the respective parliamentary constituencies, he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Officials of the Election Commission said they have drafted a list of 40,000 polling stations for 104.2 million voters ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held anytime between October 30 this year and January 28 next year.

As many as 613 polling centres will be in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area and the rest elsewhere in the country.

BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal said they were monitoring the formation of the committees.

“We have asked the grassroots leaders to include courageous and dedicated party leaders and activists in the committees.”

He, however, expressed worries that the formation of the committees might be hampered due to “massive arrests” of BNP leaders and activists.

Alal also said the committees were being formed keeping in mind the next parliamentary elections, Khaleda's release and the party's upcoming movement over holding the national polls under a non-partisan interim government.

The BNP had boycotted the January 5, 2014, parliamentary polls demanding a non-partisan polls-time government. The elections saw 154 lawmakers being elected uncontested.

Party insiders said the BNP was preparing for the next Jatiya Sangshad polls taking lessons from the movement ahead of the 2014 national elections.

BNP Vice Chairman Mohammad Shahjahan said there would be no more “one-sided election” in the country like that of 2014.

“We have been demanding polls under a non-partisan interim government as we have preparations for contesting the next parliamentary elections. We are working on national polls and movement,” he said.

Khaleda landed in jail on February 8 after a Dhaka court had sentenced her to five years' rigorous imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.