Hasina asks grassroots Awami League leaders to start work with focus on next election

Sheikh Hasina has asked the grassroots leaders of her party to get down to strengthening the organisation with an eye on the next general election.

Prime Minister Hasina sat with the district-level Awami League leaders at the Ganabhaban on Monday, a day after her re-election as the party’s President in its 20th National Council.

"There aren’t many days to go. Only two years and two months. The election process will start three months beforehand. You'll have to use this entire time to strengthen the party."

The presidents and general secretaries of the party's organising district units greeted Hasina with flowers on her re-election.

New General Secretary Obaidul Quader, new Presidium members Syed Ashraful Islam, Faruk Khan, Abdur Razzak, and Sahara Khatun, who retained her post in the Presidium, joint general secretarie Mahbub-Ul Alam Hanif and Abdur Rahman were also present.

Hasina advised the party loyalists to reach out to the people. "The Awami League has only one job, which is to work for the people's welfare, to change their fate," she said.     

She renewed her call for raising public awareness against militancy. "A nuisance called militancy, terrorism is going on now. It's the creation of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. They harboured those menaces."

"I will urge you all to keep on touch with the imams and religious leaders in your area so that militancy is spoken against in every mosque. We will have to make the decision to work together to keep militancy at bay," she said.