A chance to fight back for Bangladesh’s opposition party?

The BNP has finalised its mayoral contenders for the December 30 municipality polls that it sees as an opportunity to "fight back" from its worst ever situation since birth in 1978.

"We have finalised mayor candidates in all the 236 municipalities. But we will ask 10 of them to withdraw their nominations and support our 20-party alliance partners when we reach a consensus," a BNP leader, involved in the selection process, told The Daily Star last night.

Of the ten, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar) would get one mayoral candidate each while the rest may be given to Jamaat-e-Islami, he added.

BNP Assistant Publicity Secretary Emran Saleh Prince said a team of senior party leaders under the supervision of Khaleda Zia finalised its prospective candidates in four phases.

They, however, would not make public the names for "strategic reasons", said another BNP leader, who too took part in the candidate selection process.

He, like most other BNP leaders, did not want to be named.

Founded in 1978, the BNP for the first time since 1991 does not have any representation in parliament as the party-led alliance boycotted the January 5, 2014 parliamentary polls. It also earned a bad name at home and abroad after its anti-election movement turned awfully violent.

The 20-party combine also miserably failed to press home its demand for a fresh election under a non-party administration despite an over three-month-long movement since January 6 this year. The movement turned violent this time as well and around 100 lives perished.

"We want to turn around from the present sorry state of our organisation. And we are preparing to contest the municipality polls in that spirit. We want to fight back. The message will be circulated among the party's ranks and files," a BNP senior leader commented.

As part of its strategy, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will send "special messages" to the president and the general secretary of every district unit in a day or two and ask them to work united, leaving aside all sorts of differences over selection of the mayoral candidates.

"The BNP chief will send an SOS [Save Our Souls] to the grassroots leaders to save the party and the country by ensuring victory for our candidates," another BNP leader said.

Khaleda approved the final list of its mayoral candidates in the early hours of yesterday and started distributing the party's nomination letters to the candidates or their representatives from yesterday, said Prince.

More than 60 nomination letters had been distributed as of 2:30am today, BNP Joint Secretary General Md Shahjahan told The Daily Star.

Around 80 of the prospective candidates are incumbent mayors, BNP sources said, adding that the party considered the aspirants' past record, popularity and acceptability in their constituencies while selecting them.

It also picked some 10-15 candidates based on suggestions from its "well-wishers", sources said.

As per its strategy, the BNP has nominated 25-30 young "but dedicated, popular and promising" leaders where the party is not much strong.

"As we have doubts over winning in those municipalities, we have nominated some young leaders. We believe that they will strengthen the party base in those areas," said a BNP standing committee member.

BNP insiders said the party high-ups have instructed its local leaders to field dummy candidates in as many municipalities as they can and to use them against the rivals.

Prince told this correspondent that the BNP chief was happy at the way her party deputies worked and selected final candidates.

Meanwhile, BNP Spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon yesterday termed the Election Commission "submissive and spineless, and incapable" of holding the municipality polls in a free and fair manner.

Ripon also accused the government of arresting its prospective mayor candidates even after the announcement of the election schedule.

"Police yesterday [Monday] arrested Azizul Islam, incumbent mayor of Mymensingh's Nandail municipality. He was our choice for the upcoming polls as well. We find no reason behind his arrest at this time."