Abdullah Juberee
Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidates who lost the December 29 parliamentary polls attributed their defeat to lack of preparation and disorganisation in the lower units of the party along with machination by the interim administration and the people behind it.
A number of BNP leaders, stricken by the electoral debacle, seemed to be able to overcome the primary shock and criticised a section of the party’s leaders and members of the election steering committee openly while the reasons for the party’s election debacle were being discussed.
Mid-ranking leaders came down heavily on the high-ups in the party, accusing them of failing to sense the behind-the-scenes manipulation before deciding to contest the December 29 parliamentary polls.
Several defeated candidates told New Age that they believe that the disorganised state of the party was more responsible for the defeat than the machinations of the interim government and other quarters.
They sharply criticised some senior party leaders who had influenced Khaleda Zia to contest the polls.
They also criticised the persons, including some retired civil and military bureaucrats and corporate executives, who keep her encircled all the time within and outside her office at Gulshan and house in the Dhaka cantonment.
‘The chairperson was in hectic round-the-clock tours across the country. But the persons, who controlled party activities and made decisions seating either in her office at Gulshan or her house, failed to make necessary decisions and provide assistance for the candidates during the election days,’ an BNP candidate contesting the polls for a Pabna constituency told New Age in the office of the immediate-past parliament speaker, Jamiruddin Sircar on January 14.
‘I met the chairperson but did not tell her anything about the party’s disorganised state and the faults of the central leaders for fear of the influential individuals who always guard her,’ said a member of the party’s executive committee.
In many constituencies, said the candidates, the party failed to place competent agents in the polling centres, and at some places discord between the party’s local units kept them inactive.
Many of the defeated candidates apprised Khaleda Zia of the ‘reasons’ for the electoral debacle, and she also called in some defeated candidates from areas where the party was believed to have strongholds.
‘We met the chairperson and she asked us about the reasons behind the defeat. We informed her about the government’s machinations and also pointed out some other reasons like too little time for electioneering by a disorganised party,’ said Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, the defeated candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency.
The BNP’s joint secretary general, Gayeshwar Roy, who lost the election at Dhaka-3, was the first person who openly criticised the role of party’s policymakers before the elections.
‘Before attributing BNP’s defeat to conspiracies at home and abroad and machinations by the interim administration, we have to ask ourselves what we did to win the polls,’ said Gayeshwar at a discussion meeting of the Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal on January 25.
He also said some party leaders, who were not nominated but were eager to retain their strongholds in their localities, had covertly supported the Awami League’s candidates.
‘They even betrayed the party in their neighbouring constituencies. I hardly found 200 leaders who engaged themselves in electioneering for the party in my constituency,’ he said, adding that at many other constituencies the BNP leaders had extended their all-out covert support to ensure Awami League’s win.
Many candidates said they did not get the required support from the party’s election conducting committee, and in many cases were ignored.
In the Comilla 10 constituency, the BNP could not confirm who its candidate was even two days before the polls. Finally the party’s symbol, a sheaf of paddy, went to Mubashwir Bhuiyan after a long legal battle.
‘We had contacted the committee repeatedly to discuss various complications but did not get the proper response. Rather everybody was trying to evade his responsibility,’ said a candidate from greater Noakhali. ‘The chairperson seemed to be unaware of the situation as few could reach her because of a certain clique in her office. They simply keep her confined and keep an eye on movement of leaders they do not like.’
A candidate from Barisal sharply criticised the officials of the chairperson’s office, and said that they did not even know how the chairperson’s tour should be planned. ‘The chairperson addressed a single rally in Barisal town, but did not go to all the district headquarters in that division as she should have done,’ he said.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
