Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee, the party’s highest policymaking body, on Sunday decided to reconstitute all the committees from grassroots to national levels in the aftermath of the December 29 elections debacle.
Six committees, led by joint secretaries general, will start interviewing upazila-level leaders tomorrow to get the real picture of the party in the lower tiers.
The process of reorganisation will initially begin with the lower units and the six committees will sit with upazila-level leaders between February 3 and February 18 and the committees will submit their reports to the standing committee by February 28.
‘After the evaluation of the reports, the standing committee will decide the next course of action,’ said the party’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain after the standing committee meeting.
Delwar said the process of reorganising the party would be a bottom-up approach and would be completed through holding the national council session.
‘A questionnaire has been sent to the grassroots and the leaders will provide the six committees with information,’ he said.
He also said the party’s associate bodies would also be reorganised and the chairperson had exchanged views with students and youths and would sit with other bodies.
Moves for streamlining the party was initiated after the party chief, Khaleda Zia, on January 9 said all the committees of all tiers of the party and its associate bodies would be dissolved and reorganised through elections.
The party, which formed the government five times, won 31 seats, out of 300-strong parliament, securing 32.45 per cent popular vote in the December 29 general elections. It had 193 lawmakers in the eighth parliament.
Almost all the committees, excluding the national standing committee, of the BNP have served out their tenures as the party did not hold elections to the committees in two years. The tenures of all committees are generally two years.
The party had held its last central council session 16 years ago in 1993 on Manik Mia Avenue in Dhaka although, according to its constitution, it is supposed to hold the council every two years.
The party had held a representatives’ meeting with the participation of the members of the national executive committee in 2006.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
