Awami League Council: Hints over future leadership likely

Beginning today, the two-day Awami League council may drop hints about the future leadership of the party.

AL insiders said three names -- Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Saima Wazed Hossain and Radwan Mujib Siddiq -- have long been in discussion among the party’s rank and file, and their inclusion in the 81-member central working committee, to be formed at the council, may indicate who might be at the party helm in the future.

Joy and Saima are the children of party President Sheikh Hasina; Radwan is the son of Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana.

Joy is prime minister’s ICT affairs adviser. Last month, he was made number one member of Rangpur district AL. Currently, he is in the USA.

Saima is the chairperson of Bangladesh National Advisory Committee for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Radwan looks after AL’s research wing Centre for Research and Information (CRI). None of them has the party’s primary membership.

Hasina will inaugurate the party’s 21st triennial council at the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan at 3:00pm today. Another session of the council, to be held at The Institution of Engineers tomorrow, would elect the ruling party’s new leadership.

Seventy-two-year-old Hasina, a four-time prime minister, has been leading the AL since 1981. Speaking at party forums on several occasions, she expressed her desire to go on retirement.

Besides, in an exclusive interview with Deutsche Welle (DW) in February, she said, “I don’t want to continue for more [time]. I think that everybody should take a break so we can accommodate the younger generation.”

AL insiders said there has been some talk within the party that incumbent AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader may get re-elected. Quader, however, was yet to get the green signal from the party president, they said. 

The previous AL council in 2016 had elected Hasina as the party president for the eighth straight term and Quader the GS.

Names of party presidium member Abdur Razzak, joint general secretaries Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Dipu Moni, Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman, and Organising Secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury and Publicity and Publication Secretary Hasan Mahmud were also being discussed as the GS.

Party sources said there were discussions whether anyone would be dropped from the party’s highest decision-making body, AL presidium, in the face of the recent anti-corruption drive.

Many influential leaders from the AL’s front and associate bodies were removed after the drive brought to the fore their alleged involvement in alleged corruption and irregularities.

AL insiders said those removals may impact the formation of the central working committee at the council. Many leaders might lose their position.

They also said the number of members of the party’s think-tank, advisory council, may increase to 51 from 41.

The posts of assistant secretary of the sub-committees could be abolished. Instead of having assistant secretaries, the party would form committees under every secretarial department.

Talking to reporters at the Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday, Quader said the council would be an important one and that some amendments could be brought to the party’s constitution. He went there to see the event’s preparations.

About formation of the new committee, he said it would be more dynamic with inclusion of both young and senior leaders.

According to party insiders, this time some members of the AL presidium, the highest policy-making body of the party, would find spots in the advisory council while one or two joint general secretaries might be promoted as presidium members.

Former Gazipur City AL President Azmat Ullah Khan, currently an AL central committee member, and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal might get key positions in the party, they said.

They also said 7,337 councillors and same number of delegates from the party’s 79 organisational districts are expected to take part in the council.

They party invited around 15,000 special guests, including renowned poets, cultural activists, journalists, teachers, doctors, engineers and other professionals, to the event. It also invited key leaders from major political parties and platforms, including the BNP and the Jatiya Oikyafront.

For the first time, the AL has not invited delegations from foreign political parties to its council. But it invited foreign envoys stationed in Dhaka.

THE STAGE

Shaped like a boat -- the party’s electoral symbol, the stage of the programme was being prepared with a seating capacity of 77. The stage is 120 feet long and 40 feet wide.

The digital stage was decorated in such a way that it looks like a big boat floating in the mighty Padma river. A separate stage was set up in front of the main stage for cultural programme.

Shoal on both sides of the bridge, toll plazas, open sky and grasses were being projected centring the whole stage.

Apart from these, banners and festoons, highlighting the government’s various development projects, including the mega ones, would be put up around the venue. The programme would be screened through 28 LED screens at the venue.