Shawdesh Desk:

A number of opposition political parties, including some leftist parties, are working to form a separate opposition political platform sans BNP ahead of the next parliament election.

“We are working to forge a political platform with opposition political parties, including leftist parties,” Saiful Huq, general secretary of Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh, told the Daily Sun.

Sources from the initiators of the political platform said the opposition alliance is likely to be named after ‘Ganatantra Manch’ or ‘Votadhikar Manch’ to wage movement against the current government.

The political platform may be forged with the left leaning political parties and other like-minded opposition parties, including Nagorik Oikya, a faction of Gana Forum, Gana Adhikar Parishad, Ganasanghati Andolan and some other social organisations and ‘distinguished’ personalities, the sources added.

“We have plans to go for movement to realise our demand of holding the next general election under a neutral, non-party supervising government,” said Saiful Huq, also coordinator of Left Democratic Alliance (LDA), an alliance of leftist political parties.

He said they have already started initial discussion with various ‘progressive, democratic and patriotic’ political parties, organisations and individuals to forge the political unity outside the BNP’s initiative.

“We have planned to form a semi-political platform to forge united movement in a bid to realise our demand of voting rights and reformation of state system,” Saiful Huq said.

Insiders said formal discussion of the ‘semi-political’ platform may start from upcoming March month.

About the platform, Mostafa Mohsin Montu, president of a faction of Gana Forum, told the Daily Sun that “We want national unity to realise our demand of holding free, fair and neutral election.

We want to bring rightist political parties and leftists under the unity.”

Asked whether their platform will be conflicting with another initiative of the opposition BNP, Montu, also former steering committee member of Jatiya Oikya Front, said, “It will not be conflicting with the BNP’s initiative as we together will go for simultaneous movement to realise our same demand.”

BNP leaders said the party is now working to forge a greater political platform of opposition political parties through bringing different opposition parties, including Islamic and leftist parties of the country, under a platform.

The party wants to forge greater movement to realise their demand of polls under election time non-party, neutral government.

The BNP already has started informal discussion with different opposition parties to this end. Opposition parties’ sources said actually the parties outside 20-party alliance and Jatiya Oikya Front and some of the components of the two alliances want to forge the ‘semi-political’ platform in a bid to keep the BNP under pressure and as tools to bargain with the BNP about sharing of benefits in the next.

A number of political parties, organisations and individuals are not interested in making direct unity or joining political platform under the leadership of BNP due to its link with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam.

In this situation, the political parties, social organisations and individuals want to forge parallel ‘semi-political platform, beside the BNP’s greater political platform, the sources added.

Talking to the Daily Sun, an initiator of the ‘semi-political’ platform wishing not to be named said, “If we can forge the platform outside the BNP, then we can also bargain with BNP about sharing parliamentary seats and can keep BNP under pressure to meet our desires.”