The BNP yesterday lambasted the ruling Awami League for what it said was its “conspiracy” to split the 20-party opposition alliance.

It made the allegation two days after a faction of Islami Oikya Jote, led by Abdul Latif Nezami, announced that they cut their 17-year ties with the BNP-led combine.

Without mentioning IOJ's split, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said the ruling party was trying to split political parties and alliances.

“An old party like Awami League that had fought for democracy for long and had a role in achieving the country's independence, has become politically bankrupt and now it is conspiring to split the opposition platform,” he said, addressing the triennial council of Bangladesh Labour Party, a component of the opposition alliance, at Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital. 

Former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Emajuddin Ahmed inaugurated the programme. Over 150 delegates of the party's 44 district and city units joined the council of the Labour Party established in 1974 under the leadership of Moulana Abdul Matin.

At the programme, Fakhrul alleged that opposition parties were not being able to carry out political activities for lack of democratic space. “There's no political atmosphere anywhere. We can't hold any meeting, rally. We're not even allowed to gather in our offices and hold meetings there.”

The BNP leader accused the government of destroying the country's electoral system to remain in power.

People's voting rights will be violated in the upcoming union parishad elections, he observed. “We have to forge a national unity and unite the country's people without further delay. We need to do everything, including waging a movement, to restore our rights.”

Fakhrul also accused the media of practising one-eyed policy.

“We wonder at the media trying only to find out faults of the BNP and opposition… we don't see it raising voice against those who have destroyed democracy and snatched people's rights,” he said.