Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has begun restructuring Chhatra Dal to add more impetus to street protests and to consolidate the party’s roots.
The old committee has been dissolved at the order of acting party chairman Tarique Rahman and three special committees have been formed to seek out future leaders, said BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
Rizvi further said that three committees have been formed for the central council of Chhatra Dal-2019.
Leading BNP figures like Khairul Kabir Khokon, Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, ABM Mosharraf Hossain, Fazlul Huq Milon and others are involved in the committees.
A few former Chhatra Dal leaders said that several meetings were held in the last two months to seek out future leadership and a search committee led by Shamsuzaman Dudu worked on this.
Reportedly, on May 31, Tarique Rahman had a Skype meeting with Chhatra Dal leaders of the last committee. Later, the old committee was dissolved and orders given to form a new committee within 45 days.
This order plunged veteran Chhatra Dal leaders into despondency. They feel that this order did not come after consultation with Khaleda Zia.
Reportedly, Chhatra Dal is being restructured with Khaleda Zia’s consent. BNP wants to bring devoted new faces to the front.
The first convener of Chhatra Dal, Kazi Asaduzzaman, died a few days ago; he was a member of Khaleda Zia’s advisory panel. Of the other leaders, Ilias Ali is missing, Golam Sarwar Milon is linked to Jukto Front.
A city Chhatra Dal leader says: “The acting chairman has realised the clog in the organisation and has taken a step to redress it; preference has been given to youths who passed SSC after 2000.”