'BNP facing Muslim League’s fate after polls debacle'
Lack of confidence of the workers in the BNP has led to its election rout and it is going to face the same fate as the Muslim League, Hasanul Haq Inu has said, reports bdnews24.com.
The information minister referred to the 1970 elections on Sunday night during a bdnews24.com live broadcast moderated by Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi on the developments, results and analysis of the election.
“The Muslim League had lost control of its workers at the grassroots level despite being the largest party in the ’70 elections. The workers had ditched the party and sided with the nationalist struggle. That’s how the Muslim League era came to an end,” Inu said.
“In this election as well, the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami alliance did politics of violence and sold election nominations in exchange for money. It suffered lack of confidence of the workers. As a result, they lost control of the workers on the ground. BNP-Jamaat workers switched sides and worked together with the Grand Alliance (led by Awami League),” he remarked.
The Awami League is set to form the government for a third straight term after winning a landslide victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
The BNP and its allies managed only six seats while the Awami League secured 203 in the 300-seat parliament, according to results for 235 seats published until 3:30am.
The ruling party’s key ally the Jatiya Party has won 22, which raises the possibilities of the party remaining as the main opposition in parliament.
“NO HIFAZAT TIE”
Inu, the president of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal or JaSoD, was a staunch critic of the Awami League’s ties ahead of the polls with the Hifazat-e Islam, a group that drew global attention after rampaging through Dhaka’s commercial hub Motijheel following a sit-in against government policies, especially on religion, education and women, and atheist bloggers in May, 2013.
After the win in the election, Inu said, “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has not bowed to the Hifazat’s demands even after its movement. We have forged neither any friendship nor any political alliance with the Hifazat.”
“What happened happened for the sake of the Qawmi madrasas. I think it was a correct decision to bring the Qawmi madrasas to the mainstream,” Inu said, referring to the government recognition of the highest Qawmi madrasa degree.
“It’ll take time, but the Qawmi madrasas will no longer be in the dark. They will play a positive role in the continued stability in Bangladesh,” he added.
He also said his party wants a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami like the one on the Nazis in Germany. The Jamaat opposed Bangladesh’s independence during the Liberation War in 1971 and recently had five of its top leaders hanged for committing crimes against humanity committed in collaboration with the Pakistan Army during the war.
He said the extinction of the Jamaat in Bangladesh is a “matter of time now as the Hasina administration will adopt a secular policy in the future”.
On being asked, the minister said the Grand Alliance government led by the Awamio League will prioritise elimination of inequalities and corruption and, establishment of good governance.
