One more to join 19-party

The BNP-led 19-party alliance last night decided to widen the platform by including a faction of Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal in the combine.
The decision was made at a meeting of the alliance high ups at BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office, said meeting sources.
Khaleda showed interest in including the party in the alliance. As per the directives of the party chief, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a press conference today at the party's Nayapaltan headquarters will make an announcement in this regard.
Earlier on Tuesday, a delegation of the Samyabadi Dal's faction, led by its acting secretary general Sayed Ahmed, met Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office and expressed their interest in joining the 19-party alliance.  

At the meeting last night, all the representatives of the alliance components backed Khaleda's recent demand for disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion.
Wishing anonymity, the chief of an alliance component told this newspaper that leaders at the meeting asked Maulana Abdul Halim, Dhaka city Nayeb-e-Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, if his party was developing any relationship with the government.
Rejecting the notion of the alliance leaders, Halim said they were with the 19-party alliance.