BNP welcomes Jukto Front-Gono Forum pact before election

The BNP has welcomed the unity forged between the Jukto Front alliance and the Gono Forum under the leadership of AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and Dr Kamal Hossain.

It sees the new alliance as a step towards forging ‘national unity’.

“Khaleda Zia had called for national unity before she was jailed. Today we are very delighted that the process of this national unity has advanced to a great deal,” BNP Standing Committee Member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said at a discussion in Dhaka on Wednesday.

“We congratulate those who are working to forge the national unity outside the 20-party alliance for fair, inclusive election under a non-partisan government, level playing field, dissolution of parliament and reformation of the Election Commission before the polls,” he added.

Dr Kamal, who had left the Awami League in the 80s, and Badruddoza, a former BNP leader, announced after a meeting on Tuesday that they would work together.

Dr Kamal now heads the Gono Forum while former president of the country Badruddoza is the chief of the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh.

Badruddoza also heads the Jukto Front with ASM Abdur Rab’s Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD and Mahmudur Rahman Manna’s Nagorik Oikya in the alliance.

They are trying to get the Gono Forum and Abdul Kader Siddique’s Krishak, Sramik Janata League on board ahead of the next general election, which is scheduled to be held by January next year.

Badruddoza, who formed his party after ditching the BNP, had floated an alliance, NDF, with Kader Siddique and Rab before the 2014 general elections, but boycotted the balloting as did the BNP.

The BNP stayed away from the vote as its demand for a neutral caretaker government to oversee the parliamentary polls were ignored, while the NDF said it would not take part in an election unless all the parties were in it.

After the meeting on Tuesday, Badruddoza said they did not discuss ‘at this stage’ the BNP’s proposal to form a ‘national unity’.

“The BNP’s demands over the election are similar to those of the Jukto Front,” Khandaker Mosharraf said at the discussion on Wednesday.

The BNP leader expressed happiness again to see Badruddoza, Dr Kamal, Manna and Rab in the “process of the national unity outside the BNP-led alliance”.

He also sees possibilities of a united movement against the Awami League government.

“We believe they (Jukto Front and Gono Forum) will come under the single umbrella when a national unity is forged with all the patriots, professionals and other people. No conspiracy of the Awami League will work when the people hit the street,” Khandaker Mosharraf said.

Manna, who is also working as the member secretary of the Jukto Front, was present at the discussion.

They will not contest in the election if parliament is not dissolved and the government does not step down before the polls, the Nagorik Oikya convenor said.

JSD General Secretary Abdul Malek Ratan, among others, spoke at the event.