by Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee in The Daily Star, July 17, 2023
After around 16 months, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina is going to sit with the leaders of AL-led 14-party alliance on Wednesday.
Informing the leaders about the outcome of AL and government’s meetings with US envoys and visiting European delegations and discussion on the next course of action regarding politics are in the agenda, said sources.
But sources in the 14-party alliance said Hasina convened the meeting to discuss election-related issues with the partners as the next national election is approaching. Besides, the BNP and its like-minded parties announced a “one-point” movement with the target to remove the AL from power and the party also demanded that the polls be held under a non-partisan administration.
The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Gono Bhaban at 7:00pm on Wednesday.
This will be Hasina’s second meeting with the alliance leaders since the AL formed the government in 2019 for a third consecutive time.
After three years, the last meeting was held on March 15, 2022, at the Gono Bhaban where Hasina assured the alliance leaders that her party will contest the next national election under the banner of 14-party combine.
The prime minister is going to meet her party’s left allies when the gap with them keeps widening since 2019, as the left allies were ignored in times of crucial decision-making and left out during the formation of the government.
The alliance leaders were also aggrieved over the ruling AL for various reasons, including the launching of electioneering by the AL unilaterally and the ruling party’s interest to have ties with Islamist parties, said sources.
Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon at a rally in February said the 14-party alliance is “non-functional” and announced that his party would take part in the next election with the party symbol “hammer”, not with “boat”.
The 14-party alliance was formed in 2008 and the Jatiya Party joined it before the 2008 national election and formed the AL-led Grand Alliance.
The AL took part in the 2008, 2014, and 2018 elections under the banner of the 14-party alliance, which was treated as AL’s ideological alliance. Besides, the JP was an electoral partner of AL in the polls.
The left leaders were inducted in AL-led governments in 2009 and 2014, but were ignored in the incumbent government.
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/14-party-alliance-hasina-meet-its-leaders-after-16-months-3371036
