BNP does not attend Awami League National Council

The BNP did not attend Awami League’s 20th National Council, despite receiving an invitation to the event.

The Awami League also did not attend the BNP’s National Council in April.

BNP Joint Secretary General Moazzem Hossain Alal said on Friday that they would attend the event.

But no BNP delegation was present at the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan on Saturday, where the two-day convention is being held.

The BNP was invited to the event on Thursday.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had said at the time the decision about attending the council would be taken at a meeting of BNP’s Forum.

 But no BNP leader had ruled out participation.

“The forum had not made a decision about the invitation,” said a senior BNP leader on condition of anonymity. “As no decision was made, no delegation was sent.”

As Awami League had spurned the BNP’s invitation to its National Council, it had become difficult for BNP leadership to attend theirs’, he said.

“I do not know anything,” Joint Secretary General Alal told bdnews24.com. “I did not get any message on it from the secretary general (Mirza Fakhrul).”

Though BNP was not in attendance, Bikalpa Dhara Chief AQM Badrudozza Chowdhury attended the AL council.

Senior leaders of the Communist Party of Bangladesh Manzarul Ahsan Khan and Mujahidul Islam Selim, JaSad faction leader ASM Abdur Rab and former BNP leader Nazmul Huda joined the Awami League council's inaugural session on Saturday.