Bikalpa Dhara chief AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury had gone to meet Gano Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain’s residence on Saturday, but failed to meet the senior lawyer as he was not home.
The development comes after a planned meeting for Saturday of the parties, including the BNP, involved in the process of the ‘Greater National Unity’ was cancelled.
In what appears to be a rift in the unity forged by B Chowdhury and Kamal Hossain last month, the two sides have called for separate media briefings later on Saturday.
A former president, B Chowdhury is expected to brief the media at his Baridhara residence, while leaders of Kamal Hossain-led Jatiya Oikya Prokriya, possibly flanked by BNP representatives, will appear before the media at the National Press Club.
“We had gone to Dr Kamal Hossain’s residence at his invitation. But no one answered the door,” Bikalpa Dhara Joint Secretary Mahi B Chowdhury told the press corps waiting outside Dr Kamal’s Bailey Road residence.
Describing the incident as beyond any kind of political etiquette, he said, “It’s now clear why unity has not been forged until now.”
Meanwhile, Dr Kamal, a senior lawyer, has been at his offices in the city’s Motijheel throughout Saturday. No comments were available from him over not meeting B Chowdhury.
However, leaders of Oikya Prokriya said that Dr Kamal had meetings with several leaders at his offices on Saturday, including BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, JSD Presient Rab and pro-BNP intellectual Zafrullah Chowdhury.
Mirza Fakhrul entered Dr Kamal’s office around 3pm and left half an hour later, according to people familiar with the matter.
The senior BNP leader then went to the office of lawyer Mainul Hossein, a former caretaker government adviser, and around 4pm once again went to Dr Kamal’s office, they said.
Meanwhile, Bikalpa Dhara leader Mahi B Chowdhury said they have arranged a media call at party chief’s Baridhara residence while JSD General Secretary Abdul Malek Ratan said that Oikya Prokriya will brief the media at 6pm at the National Press Club.
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