The ruling Awami League has taken initiatives to resolve intra-party conflicts for keeping its unity intact ahead of the next general elections in 2019.

As part of the initiatives, the new central committee of the AL will hold meetings with district-level leaders in phases. The move also aims at bringing back party discipline at many places, say party insiders.

The party made the move after it had some bitter experiences during local government elections held in the past when rebels, stemmed from intra- party feuds, posed serious threats to party-nominated candidates.

 The AL does not want any such repetition during the general elections, they say.

The party insiders also said the recent Narayanganj City Corporation polls were the best example of party unity yielding good results. In the elections, AL-nominated mayor candidate Selina Hayat Ivy defeated her rival BNP's Shakhawat Hossain by a large margin.

As the first of the AL initiatives, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader yesterday held a closed-door meeting with Chittagong city AL President ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and the unit's general secretary and also city mayor AJM Nasir Uddin to resolve the longstanding rivalry between the two at Mohiuddin's Chashma Hill residence in the port city.

In the meeting, Quader also called upon Chhatra League leaders of the Chittagong city and Chittagong University units to refrain from any activity that would tarnish the image of the party and the government, said party sources.

"We are going to take an all-out preparation for the national elections and we have started out journey today from Chittagong. I hope all of us will work together and will be able to create a strong team here like we did in Narayanganj," the sources quoted Quader as saying.

He said the party started the "journey" from Chittagong "considering its importance after the capital".

"We have just two years before the elections. We want to solve all the problems inside the party. We will conclude the conferences of our front organisations within the next six months," Quader was quoted as saying by the sources.

Chittagong city AL has two rival factions led by Mohiuddin and Nasir. In 2015, Mohiuddin had declared to contest for the mayor in the Chittagong City Corporation elections. However, the party nominated AJM Nasir as its candidate, dissatisfying the supporters of Mohiuddin.

Contacted, Mohiuddin yesterday told The Daily Star that the BCL in Chittagong has some "issues" and that they were trying to solve them through discussions.

"The elections are coming. We hope we would be able to build a strong base at the root level [of the party] before the elections," he said.

Asked about the "distance" between the two top AL leaders in Chittagong, AJM Nasir said, "There is no distance or gap within the AL. What you see is the differences of opinion. He [Quader] has instructed us to speed up the organisational activities."

Asked about the AL initiative, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, organising secretary of the party, said, "We are working to rejuvenate and strengthen the party resolving all the conflicts."

Mahbubul Alam Hanif, joint general secretary of the AL, told The Daily Star, "The Awami League does not want any sort of feud at any level of the party. We will sit with the leaders of the districts having internal conflicts and bring back party discipline there by resolving the crisis."