BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today said that the entire nation is disappointed as Awami League did not outline any plan during its national council to get rid of the country’s prevailing crisis.

“Awami League has been working to establish one-party rule in the country since the last decade and the desire exposed during its council,” Fakhrul said while addressing a programme at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka this noon.

Blaming the ruling party for destroying the country’s democratic system and ignoring its charter, Fakhrul said, “The entire nation has expected that they would see a path to retrieve the smashed democracy, but Awami League met an utter failure to show any guideline.”

Citing the country’s political and social and economic crises, the BNP leader said, “A person and a party have been praised during the council instead of getting rid the nation from the debacle.”

Responding to a query about his party’s council, he said, “We are passing through an adverse situation as no space is being given us for politics.”

The party’s organisational activities are being hampered everywhere even the party’s district and upazila level councils are being barred deliberately, the BNP leader said.

Responding to a remark of a minister that BNP-Jamaat is involved in preparing Razakars’ list, Fakhrul said, “It is nothing but an attempt to shift the blame to on another shoulder. It’s not a new and its Awami League characteristic.”

The national election of December 30 has turned the life of Mofiz Uddin upside down -- and all for supporting BNP.

From a decent tea-shop vendor at Rabeya market of Bonkishore village in Rajshahi's Tanore upazila, the 48-year old man now works on a potato field.

“I have been a dedicated BNP worker since the 90s,” Mofiz said. “If I have committed a crime, it would be my engagement with BNP.”

In a tin-roofed earthen room under a Koroi tree at the market, Mofiz started the shop and ran it for over the last 20 years.

Furnished with a television, eight chairs, five tables, four benches and a few racks of bakery items, sweets and groceries, his tea-shop fetched him around Tk 3,000 a day to support his family of seven.

On December 21, Mofiz joined the election campaign for BNP candidate Aminul Haq when the latter went to Pachondor union.

Later that evening, a group of stick wielding men went to the market and ransacked the outside of his tea-shop, according to eye-witnesses.

“The attackers were outsiders, not known to me,” said a local businessman.

“I heard about the attack on my shop when I reached home, after campaigning that day,” said Mofiz. A friend of his called him from the market and told him to hide as the attackers were looking for him.

Until polls day, local AL men used the tea-shop as the election office of Awami League candidate Omor Faruk Chowdhury.

“Two days after the election ended, some local AL workers damaged what was left of the shop, including the earthen room, tin-roof, furniture, television, and everything else inside.”

Locals told this correspondent that they heard the AL men would build a party office in that place.

When contacted, Reaz Uddin, president of AL unit at Pachondor ward-2, said, “We are yet to decide on building our office there. If not an office, we may construct a passengers' shed that will come to the use of many.”

He said the land was 'khas' and Mofiz had been illegally occupying it.

On the identity of the attackers, he said, “Nobody knows them. They were wearing helmets and came to the village on motorcycles.”

He denied that it was local AL men who had damaged the shop after the election.

“It was Mofiz's brother, nephew and son who damaged the shop,” he said. On why Mofiz's own relatives would damage the shop, Reaz did not have an explanation.

When contacted, Rajshahi Superintendent of Police Md Shahidullah said they had not heard about the incident.

“We will investigate all allegations of post-election violence,” said the SP, adding that police circulated a message in the district so that no one would spread fear among others over feuds during the election.

Upon losing his source of income, Mofiz began work as day labourer on the potato fields to make ends meet, earning a mere Tk 300 a day.

“I am living in fear. I could not even go see the condition of my shop, the one I so dearly built from scratch,” he said. 

The Jatiya Party does not want to sit on the opposition bench in parliament.

Its MPs, in a parliamentary party meeting yesterday, unanimously decided to be a part of the Awami League-led new government.

“Since we participated in the election under the banner of the Awami League-led grand alliance, we want to join the government. Who will sit on the opposition bench is not our concern," JP Co-chairman GM Quader told journalists after the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

They sat for the meeting immediately after taking oath as members of the 11th parliament.

"We doubt if people will accept us as the opposition if we quit the grand alliance now to play the role of the opposition," Quader said, adding, "We don't want to sit on the opposition bench … This is a practical problem for us.”

During the election, the leaders and activists of the JP worked with AL men and they now want to work together with the ruling party for the country's development, he said.

"A delegation of the party [JP] will meet Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina to convey our decision to her. If she has any suggestions for us, we will discuss them in our party forum," Quader said.

At the meeting, he said, his party's lawmakers opined that they want to work with the leader of the grand alliance to take the country  forward.

The complication emerged due to the poor performance of the BNP-led alliance in the election, Quader said, adding, "We did not predict such a poor performance by the BNP.”

The way people voted indicated that they did not want to see the opposition in parliament, Quader claimed.

After the meeting, JP Secretary General Mashiur Rahman Ranga told reporters that people were happy with the government and they did not want a major opposition in parliament.

"We want to stay with the new government. However, grand alliance chief Sheikh Hasina will make the final decision in this regard. We will abide by her decision," Ranga said.

In the December 30 polls, the AL-led grand alliance secured 288 seats. JP, a key component of the alliance, bagged 22 seats. The BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront managed to win only seven seats. Independent candidates won three.

Election in Gaibandha-3 was rescheduled for January 27 following the death of a candidate and re-polling will take place in three centres in Brahmanbaria-2 on January 9.

The Jatiya Oikyafront has announced that its MPs-elect will not take  oath as the alliance rejected the polls results alleging that the election was rigged by the ruling party.

Against this backdrop, it was assumed that the JP may sit on the opposition bench, like in the current parliament.

The JP became the main opposition in the current parliament formed after the 2014 election, which the BNP-led alliance had boycotted. The JP won 34 seats and its senior leader Raushan Ershad was recognised as the leader of the opposition with the status of a minister. Three JP MPs were also made ministers.

Their dual role has been criticised. The party could not play its due role as the main opposition in parliament in the last five years.

Meanwhile, JP Chairman HM Ershad could not take his oath as MP yesterday due to his illness, said GM Quader, Ershad's younger brother.

He was then scheduled to take the oath separately at 3:00pm yesterday. But later, he informed Quader that he was feeling ill and would not be able to do so.