BNP prepping for 7th council

The BNP is preparing to hold its seventh national council in mid-October.

BNP insiders said the party is planning to bring young blood to leadership positions to overcome stagnation.

Young leaders will get priority in all tiers while the elders will be placed in advisory councils, they said.

“We hope that Khaleda Zia will be released soon. We will complete our preparation for holding council so that we can hold it soon after her release,” a vice-chairman of the party told The Daily Star wishing not to be named.

The holding of the council was discussed in the party’s standing committee meeting on Saturday where BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman talked about the preparations.

Party sources said this time the council might be smaller in scale and less flamboyant.

On Saturday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists, “We are

preparing for our next council, and we have already started our activities including re-organising our district units.”

BNP’s sixth national council was held on March 19, 2016.

Jamiruddin Sircar, party’s standing committee member, told The Daily Star, “We want to hold council under her [Khaleda] leadership. Our aim is to rejuvenate the party.”

Chhatra Dal council

Election for the post of the president and secretary of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal would be held on July 15.

Convener of Chhatra Dal Election Management Committee Khairul Kabir Khokon announced the election schedule yesterday.

The voter list would be published on Monday and there would be age limits for the contestants, he told a press briefing at the BNP’s Nayapaltan office.

Candidates must be primary members of the party, unmarried, students of any educational institution in Bangladesh, and have had passed SSC or equivalent examinations after the year 2000.

On Saturday, leaders of the recently-dissolved Chhatra Dal committee announced that they would continue their movement until their demand for formation of a new short-term committee or the removal of the age-limit was met.

Chhatra Dal’s last committee was formed on October 14, 2014, with Rajib Ahsan as its president and Akramul Hasan as general secretary.