Dhaka desh: Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has reportedly expressed anger over the role of some of her party’s ministers and lawmakers, who have allegedly been patronising outsiders for petty political interest. Grassroots leaders told the Awami League chief that some lawmakers and ministers were involved in groupism, and were backing outsiders instead of AL leaders and workers. Sheikh Hasina assured them that action would be taken against those patronising BNP-Jamaat elements and creating rift within the party, sources at the meeting said.
The AL president was talking to leaders and workers, who had come from across the country to attend the party's extended meeting at her official residence, Ganabhaban, yesterday.
Sheikh Hasina told the grassroots-level leaders and workers to work for those who will be nominated by the party's central leadership for contesting the next general election, so that the AL returns to power. “You will have to work in favour party nominated candidates, forgetting all differences. Don’t get involved in infighting ahead of the polls,” she was quoted as having said by a general secretary of a district unit of the party.
After delivering her inaugural speech, the AL president gave a chance to grassroots-level leaders to speak. Eight district leaders from eight divisions spoke at the meeting. The Sylhet City unit AL president, Badaruddin Ahmad Kamran, told The Independent that Sheikh Hasina asked them to remain united, minimising differences at the grassroots level ahead of the next polls. “Our leader assured us of action against those patronising BNP-Jamaat elements and instigating intra-party feuds,” he said.
The veteran district leader also said Sheikh Hasina told them that the AL was able to return to power in 2008 after 21 years because of the grassroots-level leaders and workers.
Talking to this correspondent, Majibur Rahman Majnu, general secretary of the AL’s Bogra district unit, said the party chief directed them to prepare from now to ensure “Nouka’s” victory in the parliamentary election slated for 2019. She told them to carry out door-to-door campaign and stand beside the people. They should project the government’s success stories, so that the people did not take the wrong decision in the next polls.
Advocate Baki Billah, president of the AL’s Jamalpur district unit, said: “Our leader told us to remain united and work for party candidates in the next polls to ensure their victory.”
He said the grassroots-level leaders requested Sheikh Hasina to nominate fair, dedicated and popular candidates, and definitely not give nomination on the basis of party posts and “nice faces”.
The Al chief assured them that their opinion would be taken before giving nomination to anyone for contesting the next polls.
At the meeting, the party’s publicity and publication cell distributed a booklet on the Hasina government’s development activities in the last eight years, so that the grassroots-level leaders could highlight them before the people.
In her inaugural speech, Sheikh Hasina urged the party leaders and workers to strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level. She vowed that the AL would continue its struggle till the destiny of the downtrodden changed.
In her more than one-hour speech, the AL president highlighted the country’s socio-economic progress during the tenure of her government and criticised the BNP for its “destructive” politics, besides giving instructions to party leaders and workers about what should be done to woo the people.
Despite attempts by the party high-ups to minimise disputes, internal conflicts continue unabated in the party that ultimately harms the party’s ongoing preparations for the next election, says party sources.
In the latest such incident, the police arrested 11 people, including Sirhan Sharif Tomal, son of land minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif, on Friday. This was in connection with a case filed for vandalism in Ishwardi upazila of Pabna.
Local leaders said Sirhan, president of the Ishwardi upazila unit of the Juba League, the AL’s youth wing, was a victim of intra-party feud.
When contacted, Sirhan’s father and the AL’s Pabna district president, Shamsur Rahman Sharif, said there is a longstanding dispute among local ruling party men. The police yesterday arrested some of the party leaders for vandalism that took place because of internal conflict.
