Most bigwigs support Delwar as secretary on the run

Majority BNP leaders in Patuakhalia have expressed their support to the party's new secretary general Khondokar Delwar Hossain, some front ranking leaders in the district committee claimed.
The party rank and file expressed their full confidence in the leadership of Begum Khaleda Zia, they said.
They alleged that expelled secretary Mannan Bhuiyan is misleading the party men in the name of reform.
Besides district committee leaders, this correspondent also talked to many leaders including presidents and secretaries of upazila units who are councilors and hold vital party posts in the district committee.
A good number of BNP leaders and activists including upazila presidents and secretaries led by district unit vice-president MA Rob met with Khondokar Delwar at his residence in Dhaka on Sunday and expressed their support to him, part men said.
MA Rob is a close aide to Patuakhali BNP president and former minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, now in jail on corruption charge. Altaf is also vice-president of central BNP.
District BNP vice-presidents Abdur Rashid Chunnu Mia, Shahjahan Khan, Shahadat Mridha; joint secretaries Maksud Ahmed Bayezid Panna and Motiur Rahman; office secretary Fakhar Udding Khan; Kalapara upazila BNP president ABM Mosharef Hossain, Galachipa upazila BNP secretary Omar Faruq, Patuakhali town BNP president advocate Unus Ali Mollah, Sadar upazila BNP president Kazi Mahbub and district Krishak Dal president Shahjahan also expressed their support to Delwar Hossain.
District Jubo Dal president Moshiur Rahman and secretary Bakhtiar Uddin Murad, both in jail, also are with Delwar, party sources claimed.
“There is no alternative to Khaleda Zia to lead BNP as she carried the ideology of late president Ziaur Rahman,” Chunnu Mia told to this correspondent at his Nutan Bazar business office recently.
District BNP vice-president MA Rob said, “All leaders and activists in the district are with us and support Khaleda Zia”.
He alleged that Mannan Bhuiyan is misleading party leaders and activists.
District BNP secretary Snahansu Sarker Kutti is on the run since proclamation of emergency.
This correspondent could not contact Kutti on cell phone despite repeated attempts.
Some party sources claimed that Kutti and Patuakhali municipality chairman and BNP leader Mostaq Ahmed Pinu, both rivals of Altaf Hossain, have joined Mannan Bhuiyan.
Asked about them, Rob said, "No body with them as they are detached from grassroots party leaders and activists”.
“They will not be able to do any harm to the party in Patuakhali”, he said.
He claimed that Kutti joined Mannan Bhuiyan to evade arrest.
Mostaq Ahmed Pinu faces two cases filed by Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). Arrested in Dhaka, Pinu is now in Patuakhali jail.