BNP leader Farooque demands party hearing to find out own mistakes

BNP leader Zainal Abedin Farooque has demanded that the party leadership hold a hearing to find out their own mistakes that led to its worst electoral debacle in recent memory.

He made the demand at the ‘public hearing’ organised by the Jatiya Oikya Front on alleged vote rigging in Dhaka on Friday.

Farooque, who lost after running for Noakhali-2, referred to different pre-polls events and said analysing those will make it clear how the party was defeated by the Awami League’s strategy.

Oikya Front chief Dr Kamal Hossain presided over a seven-strong panel that heard the allegations raised by the candidates of the alliance.

Addressing BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Farooque said, “I can’t bear it anymore, honourable secretary general. I am placing my last proposal in this public hearing. We need to hold a hearing to find out whether we are making more mistakes with our strategy.”

He believes the party should have held protest programmes to free their chief Khaleda Zia from jail when the supporters were pumped up before the vote.

He also blamed Dr Kamal for his failure to anticipate the Awami League’s “strategy of vote rigging” and announce any tough programme after losing in the “engineered” elections.

The Oikya Front should have gathered its candidates in Dhaka for demonstration as suggested by senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed “in a leaked phone conversation with Barkatullah Bulu” when the authorities denied it permission to rally three days before the polls, Farooque said.