Dhaka: BNP leaders on Thursday refuted claims that the party conducted a meeting at the Secretariat to decide on its candidate for the upcoming presidential election. This statement comes in response to criticism from the opposition party, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
According to United News of Bangladesh, BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy addressed reporters to clarify the situation. Roy stated, “There was no meeting today. Since Tarique Rahman is the prime minister and our party chairman, we had entrusted him with the responsibility of choosing the candidate. He called us and informed us of the decision. There was no meeting there.” This clarification was given after the nomination paper for BNP’s presidential candidate, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, was submitted to the Election Commission at the Nirbachan Bhaban.
The BNP’s response was prompted by Jamaat’s criticism regarding the announcement of Mirza Fakhrul as the BNP’s presidential candidate, which was allegedly decided during a ‘meeting’ at the Secretariat. A BNP delegation, led by Standing Committee member Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan, submitted the nomination paper to Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, who is acting as the returning officer for the presidential election, at 2:24 pm. In the nomination paper, Moyeen Khan proposed Mirza Fakhrul as a presidential candidate, with Gayeshwar Chandra seconding his candidacy.
Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni, a member of the BNP delegation, also dismissed the meeting claims, asserting, “What took place at the Secretariat today was not a meeting. We held discussions there. Discussions can take place anywhere in Bangladesh.” Moni emphasized that the decision regarding the presidential candidate had already been made, and Tarique Rahman merely announced it.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, PM’s adviser and BNP Senior Joint Secretary General, further supported this narrative, stating that it was not a BNP Standing Committee meeting, as the committee had previously authorized Tarique Rahman to select the party’s presidential candidate.
Earlier in the day, Jamaat Assistant Secretary General AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad questioned the legitimacy of a BNP meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Secretariat for selecting its presidential candidate. Azad remarked, “The Secretariat is an executive place. A top-level political meeting has been held there! We are not aware of any such precedent. Yet they are doing it. So, how do they view democracy?” He made these comments after submitting the nomination paper for their alliance’s presidential candidate, Col (retd) Oli Ahmad, to the CEC.
During the briefing, Gayeshwar Chandra welcomed the participation of the 11-party alliance in the presidential election scheduled for August 20. Commenting on the involvement of both BNP and Jamaat-led opposition camps in the election, Moni stated, “The beauty of democracy is that we are contesting and being elected.”
Moni also highlighted that this Parliament was established through a neutral election after 17 years of movement and noted that BNP’s Tarique Rahman is striving to meet the expectations of the public. The delegation included several notable figures, such as Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee, parliamentary whips, and BNP joint secretaries general Habib Un-Nabi Khan Sohel and Abdus Salam Azad.