Oikyafront looks for expansion

The Jatiya Oikyafront, formed recently with the BNP and several other parties, now wants to expand by including more partners from the BNP-led 20-party alliance.

Senior leaders of the Oikyafront are now working on it in the light of a proposal made by the BNP, sources in the platform said.

According to the proposal, four components of the 20-party alliance -- Liberal Democratic Party, Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Bangladesh Jatiya Party, and Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar-led faction) -- may be invited to join the Oikyafront soon, they added.

“The door of the Jatiya Oikyafront is open to all and anyone can join. If any component of the BNP-led 20-party alliance wants to join, we will welcome them,” Moudud Ahmed, BNP's standing committee member, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Asked about this development, a top leader of Oikyafront Mahmudur Rahman Manna, said, “The Oikyafront leaders will sit tomorrow [today] at 12 noon to discuss issues, including expansion of the alliance.”

Manna, also convenor of Nagorik Oikya, may be made the spokesperson for the Oikyafront, a senior BNP leader said.

Even after inclusion of some components of the 20-party combine in the Oikyafront, the 20-party will function as a separate platform.

“The demands and goals of all the opposition forces are the same. We will chalk out our action programmes in consultation with the Oikyafront leaders. The 20-party alliance will hold the programmes simultaneously with those of the Oikyafront,” said Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, BNP's standing committee member.

Senior leaders of the 20-party alliance yesterday in a meeting welcomed the formation of the Oikyafront. In the meeting at the BNP chief's Gulshan office, party's Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan briefed the 20-party alliance leaders about the aims and objectives of the Oikyafront, meeting sources said. 

A senior BNP leader is in communication with the leaders of left-leaning political parties, urging them to take to the streets with a similar demand for a free and fair election under a non-partisan interim government.

After weeks of talks and intense negotiations, the BNP and four other political parties formally launched an alliance called Jatiya Oikyafront on Saturday, excluding Bikalpadhara Bangladesh led by former president Prof Badruddoza Chowdhury, just months before the national election.

The four other parties are -- Gonoforum led by Dr Kamal Hossain, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal led by ASM Abdur Rab, Nagorik Oikya and Forward Party.