Members of BNP’s policymaking National Standing Committee convened a long meeting that went on till well over 1am in the morning to finalize the candidates for the upcoming national election.

The meeting started around 7am on Friday (Nov 23) and it was well underway even after 1:30am Saturday (Nov 24).

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committe members Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Mirza Abbas, Dr Moyeen Khan, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Nazrul Islam Khan were among the leaders present in the meeting.

According to BNP sources, the party is likely to allocate 50-60 seats for candidates of 20-party Alliance and Jatiya Oikya Front.

BNP will release the final list of candidates next week, they said.

As many as 4580 aspirants collected nomination forms to contest polls with ‘paddy sheaf’, the party’s electoral symbol.

The deadline to file nominations is Nov 28 while scrutiny will take place on Dec 2, according to polls schedule. Deadline for withdrawal of candidacy is Dec 9 and the voting day is slated for Dec 30.