Claiming her party’s movement a success, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Wednesday night said she has turned out to be the leader with 95 percent people’s support while her arch rival Sheikh Hasina became Prime Minister with the mandate of only five percent people.”Don’t get frustrated, I’m not upset. Our movement is successful as 95 percent people are with us and they didn’t vote in the January 5 elections,” a journalist quoted Khaleda as saying at a meeting with pro-BNP professionals.A delegation of Bangladesh Sammilito Peshajibi Parishad, a body of pro-BNP professionals, led by its convener Ruhul Amin Gazi, held over a two-hour closed-door meeting with the BNP chief at her Gulshan office.Meeting sources said, Khaleda exchanged views with the professionals and talked about the latest political situation, the January 5 elections and her party’s strategy to force the government to hold fresh polls.After the meeting that ended around 11am, another journalist leader, wishing anonymity, told UNB that Khaleda justified her party’s decision to boycott the election. “Our decision to boycott the polls was right one. It would have been a suicidal decision had we joined it. Because they (AL) through election engineering made us the number third party to prove that we have no public support.”About her party’s movement plan, Khaleda told the meeting that they would not pursue any imprudent line of action. “We will take tolerable and peaceful programmes. But we’ll be forced to announce harsher programmes if the government obstructs our peaceful movement.”Mentioning that their movement is going on, the former premier said they will gradually intensify it and force the government to quit and arrange an inclusive and fair election.Khaleda said, the current regime will not sustain even for a year as it has no support both at home and abroad, the sources said. She also said the government is morally very weak though they are screaming louder to cling to power. Referring to the congratulatory messages sent to the government by different countries, Khaleda said what the government is providing information to the media about the greetings are not accurate. “They’ re giving partial information. We have good contact with those countries. Government versions don’t match with their ones.”Asked what they suggested Khaleda, a lawyer who was present at the meeting said most of the professionals advocated for engaging in talks with the government alongside continuing the peaceful movement.They also suggested reconstitution of the committees of the party and its associate bodies, mainly the Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal, bringing in the limelight the dedicated and active party leaders. The professional also advocated for strengthening all the Dhaka city units of the party and its associate bodies so that they can wage a strong movement in the capital like other parts of the country. Khaleda also sought the cooperation of the professionals in intensifying the anti-government movement with their spontaneous participations in the days to come.In response, the professionals assured her of working sincerely to increase people’s involvement in BNP and its alliance’s movement.BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, standing committee members RA Gani, Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, DAB secretary general AZM Zahid Hossain, filmmaker Chashi Nazrul Islam, Dhaka University teachers Prof AFM Yusuf Haider, Prof Sadrul Amin, BFUJ secretary general Shawkat Mahmud, Jatiya Press Club general secretary Syed Abdal Ahmed, joint secretary Kader Gani, DUJ secretary general Jahangir Alam Prodhan, Supreme Court Bar Association general secretary Mahbubuddin Khokan, its ex-president advocate Joynal Abedin and Engineers’ Association president ANM Akhater Hossain, among others, attended the meeting.
