BNP now revolves round Delwar

Despite the relaxation of restrictions on 'indoor politics' in the capital for more than nine months now, BNP could not hold a single meeting of its standing committee or the national executive committee during the period.
Meanwhile, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, chairperson appointed secretary general of the party also the executive chief of Khaleda loyalist faction, has been taking most of the major decisions unilaterally, claiming that his decisions have been directly guided by the directives of detained party chief Khaleda Zia.
On the other hand, the rival faction currently led by Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed has been basically absent from the political scene, since its Acting Chairperson M Saifur Rahman recently in a statement admitted to his inability to lead the faction, which was followed by the recent arrest of Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, another key figure in the clique.
According to the party constitution, national standing committee is the highest policy making forum in BNP, which is supposed to meet once a month, while the national executive committee is supposed to meet at least once every three months.
The party's detained chairperson has been under scathing criticisms both from within and outside the party for treating the organisation as her 'fiefdom' over the years.
BNP has not had its national council in the last fourteen years, and had its only national executive committee meeting in five years, just before the tenure of the immediate past four-party alliance government led by it came to an end in October 2006.
Even after the events of 1/11 and its promise to bring tectonic shift in the country's political culture, no change has been visible in BNP's modus operandi, much to the chagrin of the majority of its rank and file.
Maintaining the traditional style of operations, Delwar has been taking all major decisions by himself without consulting the party committees at all, alleged many leaders and members of the party.
Delwar, however, recently said some of the decisions were taken in consultation with other components of the four-party alliance led by BNP.
The military backed caretaker government has been allowing 'indoor politics' in the capital since September 10 last year to facilitate party reforms and to let the parties prepare for elections.
On May 12 of this year the government extended the relaxation of the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) to the rest of the country.
Taking advantage of the relaxation of the state of emergency, all other political parties including Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami held several meetings of their party forums.
But, despite the relaxation Delwar did not take any initiative to convene meetings of the apex party committees, although he did convene two meetings of the four-party alliance to discuss the country's political situation, a frustrated BNP leader told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
He also said, "Two of our leaders -- Hannan Shah and Goyeshwer Roy -- pointed out the matter and emphasised on taking collective decisions for running the party, which made the secretary general annoyed."
"It is unfortunate that the party's standing committee and the national executive committee could not even endorse a formal demand for our chairperson's release while our political opponent Awami League is regularly holding its presidium and working committee meetings."
A former lawmaker close to Delwar said, "It is not possible to hold any meeting of the standing committee or the national executive committee, until the internal conflict is resolved."
The party also did not take any disciplinary action against its leaders who had already been convicted by courts for corruption. Several party leaders termed the failure as an 'absolute violation of the party constitution'.
According to the section 7 (e) of the party constitution, any person having a reputation of being a corruptionist or an infamous person in the society will not be eligible to hold any post at any level of the party, neither will he or she be able to run for membership of the parliament on a BNP ticket.
"Of course, the party will take actions against those who are and will be convicted by the highest court," another party leader said.
He also said now it is possible for the secretary general to call a meeting of the standing committee in consultation with the detained chairperson, since Saifur Rahman already declared himself ineffective as the acting chairperson of his faction.
A controversial meeting of the party's 'standing committee' held in Saifur's Gulshan residence on October 29 last year appointed Saifur and Maj (retd) Hafiz as the acting chairperson and acting secretary general respectively of the so called 'reformist' faction of BNP, bringing the hitherto latent factional feud out in the open.
Some pro-Khaleda leaders alleged that Delwar is busy working to ensure his supremacy over the party.
Hannan Shah, another pro-Khaleda leader who was the most vociferous in the party since the imposition of the state of emergency, has also been relegated to the sidelines, leaders of the faction added.
Party insiders said Delwar however convened some views exchanging meetings with district level leaders.
But most of the time most of the senior leaders of BNP were not informed about the meetings, making their grievances graver.