Frustrated political party

Disappointed at the poor turnout for Sunday's protest against power and gas tariff hike, top BNP leaders now wonder whether the party can wage a tough movement for a mid-term election.

Out of the party's 75 organisational districts, only 10 to 12 staged demonstrations across the country. But the others, including the BNP city unit, did not take to the streets, sources at the BNP central office said.

The Dhaka district unit even failed to stage any protest in front of the BNP central office at Nayapaltan.

Some BNP grassroots leaders and activists blamed the law enforcers' tough stand against the protest for the poor turnout.

This was the 20-party alliance's first protest programme since April 5 when the BNP-led opposition combine unofficially called off its over three-month-long indefinite blockade and frequent hartals. The alliance had launched the movement demanding a midterm polls under a non-partisan administration.

Talking to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, a BNP national standing committee member said the party high-ups were disheartened to see the poor response to Sunday's protest programme.

Top BNP leaders hoped that party men as well as common people would come out in big numbers to protest the hike in power and gas prices, he added.

“I think the BNP policymakers will have to review Sunday's programme and identify the problems. Otherwise, there will be no hope of waging a major anti-government movement in future,” said the BNP leader.

“Our grassroots have seen that their three-month movement yielded no results due to inactiveness of the party's central and Dhaka city units. Since the launch of the movement, many grassroots leaders and activists have been facing cases or on the run to avoid arrest. Why will they risk probable hassle without seeing any indication of success in the movement?” questioned Mahbub Hossain Piaru, president of Sonadanga unit Jubo Dal in Khulna.

“The BNP high-ups didn't look after us when we were put behind bars. Why will we take the risk of going to jail again?” another grassroots leader questioned.

Party insiders said a BNP assistant office secretary phoned the chiefs of different district units ahead of Sunday's programme, but he didn't get a good response.

A Dhaka city unit leader claimed that they were not properly informed about whether protests would be staged in the capital or not.

Some leaders of the 20-party alliance said the BNP didn't contact them ahead of the protest programme to discuss time and venues of the demonstration.

“When we contacted BNP leaders, they told us that we would be informed about the programme later. But the time never came. Interestingly, some BNP leaders referred us to other party leaders to know about the programme details,” a top alliance leader said.

Shahadat Hossain Selim, senior joint secretary of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a component of the alliance, said they waited at Nayapaltan on Sunday for several hours to get instructions from BNP leaders. But none of them contacted the LDP men.

A senior BNP leader said central leaders who are looking after the party's organisational activities have failed to run the party in their respective districts. The grassroots have little confidence in them, he added.