The ruling Awami League led 14-party alliance is going to sit in a meeting today (Wednesday) after a long gap of 16 months to deal with the anti-government movement by different opposition parties, and fix its strategy centring the upcoming 12th National Parliamentary election.
Chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the president of Awami League, the meeting is scheduled to be held at 7:00pm at the Prime Minister’s official residence Gonobhaban.
Although the 14-party have held a series of meetings in recent times, the AL president held the previous meeting with alliance partners in March 2022, after a three-year gap.
According to AL sources, Sheikh Hasina would share various outcomes of her recent meetings with the European Union and the United States delegations, while she also planned to discuss the next general election.
Another AL leader said that alliance partners might be asked to announce street programmes counteracting opposition parties’ simultaneous movement.
He said that AL has been holding ‘peace rallies’ continuously to counter programmes organised by BNP and its allies.
The meeting with Sheikh Hasina would take the decision of holding such programmes jointly in capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
The AL took part in 2008, 2014, and 2018 elections under the banner of the 14-party alliance, which was treated as the AL’s ideological alliance. Besides, the JP was an electoral partner of the AL in the polls.
BNP and other opposition groups announced on Wednesday a one-point movement against the government, demanding its resignation.
The sources also said that the meeting with the leaders of the 14-party alliance is aimed at fighting the upcoming national election jointly like in the last three elections.
The meeting is also expected to resolve some misunderstandings among the alliance partners in view to strengthening the alliance. Fighting conspiracies at home and abroad is another issue of the alliance meeting.
According to sources, alongside the representatives of the 14-party leaders, Sheikh Hasina will attend the meeting accompanied by several senior leaders of the Awami League.
At least two leaders from each of the alliance partners have been invited to attend the meeting and they have been asked to complete their COVID-19 test before attending the meeting.
Rashed Khan Menon, president of one of the important alliance partners Bangladesh Workers Party, said, “Next 12th National Parliament election and movement by BNP are among the issues in the meeting.”
“The meeting will also resolve many other issues in a bid to fight the anti-state forces and keep the continuation of the democracy of the country”, he added.
Hasanul Huq Inu, president of another important partner of the 14-party alliance, said the meeting will formulate a strategy to dismantle the conspiracy of capturing the power of the country by the undemocratic forces, which are aided by communal and militants.
“The upcoming parliament election and taking part in it through the alliance would be discussed in the meeting”, he said.
He also said that various problems of the people of the country, including high prices of essentials, corruption and some other issues would also be discussed.
According to sources, as the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and their allies have been trying to forge an anti-government movement aimed at ousting the Sheikh Hasina led government, the meeting of the 14-party alliance with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is very strategic and it was a demand of time for the parties in favour of democracy and independence.
The next election is expected to be held in the last week of December or in the first week of January, 2024.
In this circumstance, diplomats in Dhaka, and different international organisations have become seriously active centring the next national poll.
