BNP brings former ‘reformist’ MPs back into the fold ahead of election

With the election looming, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, has accepted the return of three former MPs who were known as ‘reformists’ for their roles against the party during the 1/11 government in 2007.

The party has also dismissed the expulsion order of Chowdhury Tanveer Ahmed Siddiky who was a member of BNP’s standing committee. SA Sultan, who was also known as reformist, will also be taken back.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the decisions in a media briefing at the party’s headquarters in the capital’s Naya Paltan area on Monday.  

“Following instructions from the party’s acting chief Tarique Rahman, the BNP has withdrawn the expulsion orders against the ‘reformist’ MPs and will bring back those who had quit the party at different times.”

Former BNP leader Chowdhury Tanveer Ahmed Siddiqui (Gazipur), former state minister Alamgir Kabir (Naogaon), former whip Abu Yusuf Khalilur Rahman (Joypurhat), and whip Shahidul Haq Jamal (Barishal) will return to the party.

SA Sultan Titu, a former BNP leader and MP from Chandpur who later quit the party, will also return. The party has also withdrawn the expulsion order of Mofiqul Hasan Tripti, the former BNP office secretary.

Jan 11, 2007 was one of the turning points in Bangladesh’s political history that threw the nation into a two-year state of emergency under an army-backed caretaker government.

Attempts were made during the reign of the military-backed caretaker government to remove Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the leaders of the country’s two largest parties, from their positions.  

A group of BNP leaders, led by the then BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, raised a demand to reform the party. Before her arrest, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia revoked the memberships of Mannan Bhuiyan, joint secretary general Ashraf Hossain and office secretary Mofiqul Hasan Tripti.

Two factions of the BNP were active during the detention of Khaleda but after her release, the reformists became inactive. Some of them returned to the party but many left politics. Others were removed from the party.

The BNP has taken an initiative to embrace its former MPs, who were removed or joined other parties, ahead of the next general election.

As part of the move, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir held a meeting with ‘reformists’ at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office on Oct 25.