Dhaka: Leaders of National Awami Party (NAP) and National Democratic Party (NDP) have expressed their displeasure with the new alliance, Jatiya Oikya Front, after leaving the 20-party alliance led by BNP.
Leaders of both parties said, we are a little skeptical about the new unity that has been built. Because we do not clearly understand the goal of that alliance.
On Tuesday (October 16) afternoon at Emmanuel's Banquet Hall, the two parties announced that they would leave the alliance due to the current political context and the Jatiya Oikya Front in a press conference. NAP Chairman Jebel Rahman Gani read the declaration.
At this time, NDP Chairman Khondkar Golam Mortaza, NAP Secretary General M Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan, NDP Secretary General Md. Manjur Hossain Isa and others. The two parties jointly organized the press conference.
In response to journalists' questions about the decision to leave the alliance, Jebel Rahman Gani said, "We believe in constitutional and systematic politics." Today's decision is based on that belief. Today we feel that BNP is not in that position with which we joined the 20-party alliance led by BNP. So we have announced to sever all ties with them.
He said that they have not made any clear announcement about whether the BNP dissolved the 20-party alliance by joining the Jatiya Oikya Front. So we ventured out and took a fresh approach and made this decision. We are a little skeptical about the new unity that has been created today. In fact, we do not clearly understand the goal of that alliance. But we wish them the best.
Explaining the reason for leaving the alliance, Gani said that every political party has its own dreams and qualities. Today in coalition politics we united with the 20 party alliance. We think BNP is not staying there now. Moreover, we joined the 20-party alliance with confidence in Khaleda Zia's leadership. We no longer have the passion or position we had towards the leadership of BNP in his absence.
Regarding the formation of Jatiya Oikya Front and the position of the 20-party alliance, he said that the 20-party alliance was abolished by the unity that was formed a few days ago under the name of Jatiya Oikya Front. Or not, or those who have come to join this alliance, do they make the 20-party alliance? We have not received a clear explanation from the main party of our alliance in this regard, BNP. We are asked to wait. As we are in the current situation of the country, as the election time is short, we do not see it as appropriate to hide at this moment or if BNP lacks confidence in its old partners.
When asked whether he left the alliance because there was no agreement on seat sharing, Gani said, "We have not given any list of seats to Awami League or BNP." Now if Awami League or BNP wants the list of seats then we will consider whether to give the list or not.
When asked whether he has received any offer from the government, he said, "We have not received any offer at the moment." But the context of 2013 was different, today's context is a bit different. I do not know whether the government will offer? But we haven't received any offers at the moment. Time will tell if the offer will actually be decided.
In response to the question whether to join a new alliance or not, the NAP chairman said, at the moment we may want to observe a little. Talks with political parties have been in the past and will be in the future. If there is an opportunity to unite with an alliance with our ideology, we will certainly move forward with a liberal attitude.
In response to the question whether there was a discussion with the other partners of the alliance about leaving the 20-party alliance or whether anyone else would leave, Gani said that there was no discussion with anyone else in the alliance about today's decision. But I can't say whether others will leave or not. Others may come if they think like us. If they find the arguments on which we have decided to be reasonable, they can take the same decision.
He said, when the coalition is united, the question of trust is the biggest. We came into alliance with confidence in Khaleda Zia. The things we are currently observing, I too could not protest on behalf of the alliance after Khaleda Zia's imprisonment on February 8. BNP did what it did alone. Because of that, I am not getting a chance to express my feelings, my party's position and political position towards BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
When asked whether he will return to BNP if he assures that his problems will be solved, Gani said, "If BNP avoids the politics that we want to avoid, then I will definitely be one with BNP in the future."
