Workers Party rocked as top leader quits

Workers Party suffered a blow as its former general secretary and current politburo member Bimol Biswas resigned from the left-leaning organisation, alleging that it was being run in an undemocratic manner.

In a letter to key party leaders, including its President Rashed Khan Menon and General Secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha, Bimol also expressed his determination to foster unity among communists and other left-leaning forces on the basis of the labour class struggle. 

He also stated five reasons for leaving the party, including the party’s high-ups being involved in activities which go against Marxist-Leninist ideologies, though they used to speak in favour of it. 

Bimol also said the top leaders of the Workers Party’s top were undermining party policy in the name of having a strategic unity with the ruling Awami League. 

“The strategic unity with Awami League was used to become MPs and ministers,” he said in the letter. 

The left-leaning leader alleged that people irrespective of their ideology and identity were included in the party in different parts of the country in the name of increasing party membership and to show an increase in the party’s strength.       

“You know it very well that the ideological and organisational differences between me and the party will not be removed. I am withdrawing myself from the post of the party’s primary member. It is my democratic right,” he wrote. 

Earlier in 2017 and April of this year, Bimol wanted to quit the party saying that it was impossible for him to remain involved in it. 

In 2018, a group of Workers Party leaders led by Haider Akbar Khan Rono left the organisation in protest of the party President Rashed Khan Menon’s decision to contest the election with the AL’s electoral symbol instead of the party’s own one. 

Another group of leaders, led by Ragib Ashan Munna, Tusher Roy and Mojammel Haque Tara, also left the party after it took part in the

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“one-sided”parliamentary elections held on January 5, 2014.

Recently, Menon has started giving statements against the government as part of his desperate attempt to prevent another split in the left-leaning political organisation, said party insiders.

The party president’s pro-government role and the party’s failure to raise voice on different crucial national issues over the years made the leaders and activists at different tiers frustrated, the insiders said.

A section of the party members was also unhappy with Menon alleging that he was busy achieving personal gains and abusing his party and Jatiya Sangsad posts.

For instance, they said Menon made his wife Lutfun Nessa Khan a lawmaker from the reserved seats for women. 

Allegations of Menon’s corruption have also been brought forward in recent times.

Law enforcers are currently launching a drive against illegal gambling and casinos, with the first one being carried at Fakirerpool Young Men’s Club in the capital on September 18.

Menon is the chairman of the club’s governing body.

Sources also said some recent remarks by Menon made the ruling Awami League aggrieved.

At a programme in Gazipur on October 14, he alleged that around Tk 9 lakh crore had been siphoned off abroad.

Later at programme in Barishal on October 20, he alleged that people could not vote in the December 30 parliamentary polls in 2018.

Meanwhile, AL leader Mohammed Nasim, also spokesperson of the AL-led 14-party alliance, yesterday said Menon’s comments embarrassed the combine of which Workers Party is a component. 

Nasim’s comment came at a roundtable meeting on the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Bangladesh and India during PM Sheikh Hasina’s visit to the neighboring country.