The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, also leader of the opposition, is likely to embark on a tour of the country's northern districts on June 26 or 27 to rally support for the party's anti-government campaign.
The party is also considering a fresh hartal anytime before the start of Khaleda's tour of northern district, depending on the government's decision on the proposals of the parliamentary special committee for constitution amendment.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party enforced a 36-hour nationwide general strike on Sunday and Monday in protest against the government move to do away with the caretaker government system.
The party has already asked the leaders of northern districts to come to Dhaka for a preparatory meeting on Khaleda's tour. The meeting will be held on June 17 in Dhaka, said party officials.
Asked about the planned tour, the party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told New Age that the party chairperson start the tour of northern district towards the end of this month.
'But the date will be set after a meeting with the leaders of the northern districts on June 17,' he said.
A senior leader of BNP told New Age that Khaleda would begin her tour on June 26.
'She will address rallies at places in different districts on her way to the northern region,' he said.
'The main objective of the tour will be mobilising support for the opposition's anti-government movement. Besides, her tour will also boost organisational activities in the districts,' he said.
During the tour Khaleda will reiterate the party's demand for mid-term polls, project the government's 'failures' in containing prices and slide in law and order, and its 'failure' to rein in share market gamblers, he said.
'Anti-state' deals with India and continuous border killings would also be points of argument of the opposition for its demand for snap polls, he said.
Asked about the party's planned 'long march', Mirza Fakhrul said the mode of the programme had not been finalised.
The party, which had earlier planned to organise a series of 'long marches' in June to press for mid-term polls, decided to shift the prorgammes towards the end of the year considering some 'factors', said its senior leaders.
The factors that prompted the party to delay organising the 'long march' programme, include weak organisational strength, onset of monsoon and the coming month of Ramadan, they said.
Mirza Fakhrul said, 'We will continue our street agitation until the government rescinds its decision to scrap the caretaker government provision.'
'The party will announce tougher programmes when the cabinet will give go-ahead to the parliamentary special committee reports on constitution change,' he said.
Party insiders said Khaleda would give a clear message to the government that the main opposition would not contest elections without a caretaker government which should be manned by neutral persons, not the immediate-past chief justice ABM Khairul Haque.
Source: New Age
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