Politics is returning to the field. The politics of the country is getting stronger. Political parties are becoming more and more active as the corona infection has decreased. The political parties are returning to the field focusing on the upcoming parliamentary elections and the formation of the Election Commission. The ruling party Awami League, the nationalist party BNP, the Jatiya Party and the left parties are showing activity. Political parties as well as various social and cultural organizations are carrying out human chain and position programs. A meeting of the executive committee of the ruling party Awami League and one of the major political parties Bangladesh Nationalist Party BNP has also been held. All in all, the political arena is becoming louder. The parties are hoping that Corona will become more active in the future if the infection is under control. Jamaat-e-Islami, the party that issued a notification to the Election Commission canceling its registration while the mainstream political parties are taking up the program due to the decline in infection, is also not far behind. The party’s high command was secretly caught in a police trap while holding a meeting as part of its political activities. It has been seen in different tenures of the previous government that the opposition parties used to be present in the political arena with various demands long before the elections. But during the tenure of the present government, it is seen that BNP, one of the largest political parties in the country, is not very vocal in the field. However, some analysts feel that the political debate between the two major parties, the ruling Awami League and the BNP, is a preparation for the upcoming elections.
They say that it cannot be said now that politics is becoming active around the forthcoming elections. Every year in August a tension is created, this time it seems to have happened. However, postponed Union Parishad elections and elections to vacant seats in the Jatiya Sangsad will be held in several places this month. There is activity around these elections. Through this, the politics of the country is rolling in the field after a long break due to the epidemic. The activities of the ruling party Awami League in Corona are eye-catching. The team is working outside the government in various developmental works including distribution of health care materials. The leaders and workers of the party have held various programs in the month of mourning last August. Besides, the main opposition party Jatiya Party was also in the discussion in the Jatiya Sangsad. The Awami League is the first party to return to politics after the return of normalcy to the country due to the reduction of coronary infections. After a long absence due to Corona, the party’s highest policy-making forum, the Central Executive Parliament, met on September 9. At the meeting, the party’s president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina has already instructed the party’s leaders and workers to prepare for the next elections. He asked to strengthen the organizational activities of the party from the grassroots level to the central level.
It is learned that the meeting, which was held after a long time, focused on organizational and party preparations ahead of the next elections. During the meeting, President Sheikh Hasina directed to revive the stalled organizational activities as the Corona infection situation has improved. At the same time, he directed to start the work of preparing the party’s election manifesto for the next elections by organizing a seminar. National elections are approaching. That is why anti-government propaganda is increasing. The meeting was urged to deal with these propaganda in an organized manner. After the meeting, the party’s general secretary Obaidul Quader said, “Our party president Sheikh Hasina has instructed us to formulate economic policies to prepare for the next (twelfth) elections.” The sub-committees have been instructed to update the issues that will be included in the manifesto of the next election through the seminars of the various sub-committees of the party. What we will include in health and education will be highlighted. He said the Prime Minister had instructed the meeting on where there were organizational problems and which needed to be resolved. There are some minor disputes, he also instructed to resolve them.
Government party sources say that the suspended activities of the Awami League will be revived as the corona infection has come down. The party will look into filling the vacant posts of the party, holding elections at the union level, including the vacant parliamentary seats, and forming a full committee of expired parties and allied organizations. The postponed 181 Union Parishad elections will be held on September 20 and the Comilla-6 by-elections will be held on October 8. Besides, by-elections for nine chairmen and three vice chairmen in 12 upazilas have also been announced. Last March, the EC decided to hold elections in all the upazilas in a few steps. Then on March 3, in the first phase, 361 Union Parishads announced the voting schedule. The date for polling is also set for April 11. However, voting was delayed due to the Corona epidemic. Then the day was fixed for voting on June 21. Elections to 16 Union Parishads in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Noakhali, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar were postponed due to increased infection. However, elections for the remaining 204 Union Parishads were held on June 21. Elections are not being held in St. Martin on September 20 due to communication problems. In addition, elections will not be held there due to the death of five more Union Parishad candidates. Besides, the schedule for the by-election of Comilla-6 constituency on October 8 has been announced.
Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif thinks the BNP is a detached political party. The party has become more isolated from the people due to not standing by the people during the Corona period. He said the BNP was involved in every incident in August. Their founder Ziaur Rahman is involved with August 15 and current leader Khaleda Zia and her son Tareq Rahman with August 21. As a result, when the month of August came, they fell into disarray. Then they talk to each other to save themselves. Asked if the Awami League has taken the initiative to organize itself, the Awami League politician said, “The Awami League organizes the organization through the council.” Due to Corona, politics has been limited for some time. During this time, the Awami League has stood by the people as part of its social responsibility. Now the situation is a little better, for this reason new committees are being formed in different places where there are problems.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNPO), one of the opposition parties in the country, has been conducting virtually various programs for so long. But a three-day meeting of leaders with the party’s high command was held on three days from last Tuesday to Thursday. On the first day, a meeting was held with the advisors of the BNP vice chairman and chairperson on Tuesday. Out of the 72 people present, 26 spoke. On the second day, 122 people were present at the meeting held on Wednesday with the senior joint secretary general, joint secretary general, organizational secretary, various editors and joint editors. And about 50 people spoke. On the third day, a meeting was held with the central leaders of 11 organs and allied organizations of the BNP. 92 central leaders took part in it. After the meeting, BNP secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the party’s high command would also take the views of field level leaders to fix the strategy.
“We have had three meetings,” he said. The BNP standing committee has a meeting on Saturday. In this meeting, the team will decide whether a few more meetings will be held? Because there is still an exchange of views with some executive members of the BNP. Meetings are scheduled with them and district level presidents and secretaries. “We may decide those issues,” he said. Later we have to discuss with the professionals. If the decision is taken at the meeting of the Standing Committee, we will hold these meetings later. The BNP secretary general said, “We have talked about the overall political situation in the country, what to do and our organizational situation.”
Recently, nine leaders and activists, including Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Golam Parwar, were arrested during a meeting at a flat in Baridhara. Among those arrested were several central leaders, including the party’s assistant secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan and Hamidur Rahman Azad. Golam Parwar was the Naib Amir of Jamaat for three years from 2016. He was also elected Member of Parliament in the 2001 elections. In a writ petition in 2013, the High Court canceled the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party. The Election Commission issued a notification canceling the registration of the party in two thousand and eighteen. A case banning Jamaat-e-Islami is still pending in court.
Police say Jamaat-e-Islami leaders were holding secret meetings as a conspiracy against the state. They have been arrested on the basis of specific evidence. Jamaat-e-Islami leaders are now in remand. Jamaat-e-Islami, on the other hand, claimed they were arrested during regular meetings. Recently, the Awami League has raised questions about the role of Ziaur Rahman in the liberation war and whether there is a body of Ziaur Rahman in the grave of Chandrima Udyan. These issues have come up in the speech of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself. Since that statement, leaders of Awami League at different levels have talked about these. Many have also demanded the removal of Ziaur Rahman’s grave from the Parliament building area. Ziaur Rahman’s body was also debated in the National Assembly on Thursday. MPs of Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party took part in it. Awami League MP Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim MP said that Zia’s body was not found in Chandrima Udyan, it was proved 40 years ago. There is a box. It will have to be removed to maintain the design of Louis Aiken’s National Assembly building.
BNP leaders are also retaliating against this statement of Awami League. BNP organizing secretary Imran Saleh Prince said the Awami League was making these baseless allegations to divert people’s attention as Corona failed to handle the situation. This government has failed step by step. Now they are lying about the founder of BNP. Is the BNP trying to enter the field through this incident? In reply, Prince said, BNP was always on the field. Organizational activities were closed for some time due to Corona. BNP is an election-oriented party and wants to run the country with the support of the people. But there is no chance of going to the polls under the present government and the Election Commission. Jatiya Party (JPA) presidium member Kazi Firoz Rashid still does not see any situation like the political arena is heating up. He said that now it is seen that Awami League has raised questions about some issues including the establishment of BNP, BNP is answering them. But the field of politics will be hot only when the BNP will take the field with any national program. They do not see any such preparation. Asked about the Jatiya Party’s (JPA) preparations for the forthcoming elections, he said, “Elections are still a long way off.” A year ago, the Jatiya Party will start working on its own program. Now the daily organizational activities are going on.