With Gano Forum chief Kamal Hossain-led Jatiya Oikya Front and 20-party Alliance giving the green light to contest the upcoming general election, the BNP now faces the challenge of creating a perfect balance between its allies in the two coalitions in the negotiations of parliamentary seats.
The party now has to complete the daunting task of distributing 300 seats among the 26 parties it has as allies as well as keep in mind the aspirants within the party.
It has appointed senior leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain as the chief of nomination coordination panel. The member of BNP’s policymaking National Standing Committee has served as chief nomination coordinator for the elections in 2008 and 2001.
According to several senior BNP leaders, some of the key members of the policymaking forum are expected to sit as early as Sunday to finalise the strategy for distributing seats.
However, everything will be finalised after a meeting between jailed Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, they said before adding that the party chief’s call will be final in deciding the number of seats for allies.
The allies’ decision on whether to contest on BNP’s polls symbol or their own is likely to be made in the next meeting.
However, parties registered with the Election Commission will delay their decision.
“We will join the election as part of the coalition and candidates will use our polls symbol. However, that will not be the case if the allies unanimously agree on a single symbol,” Kader Siddique-led Krisha Sramik Janata League’s (KSJL) General Secretary Iqbal Siddique told Bangla Tribune on Sunday.
BNP’s ally in the 20-party Alliance, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headed by Oli Ahmed, wrote to the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday that some of its candidates will contest with its own symbol ‘umbrella’ while some others with BNP’s ‘sheaf of paddy’.
Another ally Khelafot Majlish echoed.
“Our letter to EC will mention the possibility using sheaf of paddy or the party’s symbol. But the final call will come from the alliance’s meeting,” its President Maulan Muhammad Ishaq told Bangla Tribune.
While speculations over parliamentary seats are rife within the 20-party Alliance, the Jatiya Oikya Front is yet to open negotiations on the issue.
According to leaders of the coalition, the allies will come up with an initial list of its candidates in the next meeting.
Apart from the BNP, the Jaiya Oikya Front consists of Kamal Hossain’s Gano Forum, the Nagorik Oikya led by Mahmudur Rahman Manna, ASM Abdur Rab-led Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) and Kader Siddique’s KSJL.
“We hope to finalise the issue of seats within the deadline,” Manna told Bangla Tribune.
JSD General Secretary Abul Malek Ratan said that a meeting is likely to be held within Monday to finalise the matter.
Its Vice President Tania Ferdousi echoed.
“The matter will be settled in the next Oikya Front meeting. Besides that, all the allies have their own candidates and preferences.
“The parties who have their own polls symbol can go for it if they want,” she told Bangla Tribune on Sunday.
Gano Forum Executive President Subrata Chowdhury, however, said the parties who are not registered with the EC will “naturally prefer sheaf of paddy”, considering its familiarity with the voters.
Among BNP’s allies in the coalition it leads, eight parties are registered. They are LDP, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Khelafat Majlish, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (JaGPa), Bangladesh Muslim League and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Bangladesh.
Highly placed sources in the BNP say, that the LDP will be given three seats, the BJP may get one or two, Kalyan Party and Muslim League one each while something between three and five seats for the two Jamiat factions.
One or two seats may be given to the unregistered parties in the alliance.
But the case of BNP’s longtime trusted ally Jamaat-e-Islam, which recently lost its registration with the EC, is different.
The party, an ally in the four-party Alliance which formed government in 2001, will get a number of seats.
According to insiders, the BNP will give its allies in the 20-party more or less 35 seats, including for Jamaat.
On the other front— the Jatiya Oikya Front, Gano Forum and Kader Siddique’s KSJL is likely to get three seats for its candidates each while Rab’s JSD and Manna’s Nagorik Oikya two each.
The BNP, however, does not see the task as a challenge.
“It’s not a big problem. And we hope it will not be a challenge,” said Standing Committee Member Moudud Ahmed.
“The minor issues, if any, can be settled through talks. We will finalise the strategies on this matter soon,” he told Bangla Tribune.