Though BNP had a plan to stage a comeback in politics reorganising it at the grassroots level, the outgoing year - 2017 - apparently turned into another bad year for it as the party confined itself to mainly indoor programmes and press conferences like the previous year.
The party had started the year with a failure to hold a rally in the capital on January 5 to observe the day as ‘Democracy Killing Day’ and the same way it finished it by facing a serious debacle in the December 21 election to Rangpur city polls.
The party senior leaders, including its chairperson Khaleda Zia, were busy throughout the year mostly dealing with cases filed against them.
The victory of BNP mayoral candidate in Match-30 Comilla city polls was the notable success of the party in 2017.
Political analyst and ex-VC of Dhaka University Prof Emajuddin Ahmed thinks BNP could not break the cycle of failure and make its presence visible in the political landscape throughout the year.
“The year 2017 was not a good year for BNP at all as the party could not come out of bad patch for various reasons, including government’s continued repressive acts, the party’s wrong strategy, weakness of its leadership and the falling health of Khaleda Zia,” he observed.
He said BNP must take part in the next polls under any circumstances to bounce back in politics. “The party can wage a movement, but it has to be in a peaceful manner.”
He also suggested BNP to complete the party overhauling process as soon as possible with making new committees of its different units and associate bodies, and boost mass contact to make the party ready for the next polls and movement. “Khaleda Zia must visit different districts and keep close contact with her grassroots leaders.” Reported:UNB.
Senior BNP leaders said taking lessons from previous mistakes and failures they will come up with a new political strategy in the coming year to get success and restore ‘democracy in the country by winning the 11th parliamentary polls.
They said the year 2018 will be a very challenging year for the party as the verdicts in two graft cases against its chairperson will be delivered while the next general election and major city polls are set to be held in the upcoming year.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir hoped that the 2018 will be the year of restoration of democracy and people’s rights, including voting one. “The coming year will be very important one for the country. It’ll also be a very challenging year for us for ensuring the next polls under a neutral government.”
He said their party together with people will not allow Awami League to hold another January-5, 2014 polls this time, no matter what strategy it crafts.
Fakhrul said their chairperson will give a new message in the New Year to the country’s people to get ready for installing a pro-people government braving all the obstacles.
BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said they will surely be successful in the coming year foiling all the plots of the government.
BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said they have already started working out a good strategy to overcome all the possible hurdles in the coming year and ensure its victory in the national election. “We’re formulating the strategy focusing both on a movement and election,” he added.
Other activities in 2017
On April 19, the party divided its Dhaka city unit into two and formed two committees to enhance the party’s capacity, but the new committees are yet to show their strength during political programmes.
On May 10, Khaleda unveiled her party’s ‘Vision 2030’ which got appreciation from civil society members, but Awami League said it was a ‘copycat’ idea taken from its Vision 2021.
Khaleda went to London for treatment on July 15 and returned home after spending 96 days there as several courts issued warrants for her arrest.
On October 28, she went to Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar amid attack on her convoy in Feni to visit Rohingya camps and got good response from her party followers during the visit.
BNP held a public rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on November 12, a public meeting after a long time.
On December 18, BNP took out a ‘V Day Rally’ in the city and thus staged a showdown.
The party lost its some seasoned leaders, including MK Anwar, Harunar Rashid Khan Monno, Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and Nurul Huda, in 2017.