Implement polls pledges

Prime Minister, also the chairman of the ruling BNP, Tarique Rahman, on Saturday urged his party’s rank and file to engage in people-centric politics and remain connected with the people to implement his electoral pledges effectively.
“One of our wars has ended. Now another war has begun and it is to implement the electoral pledges we made to the people before the election. I seek your all-out cooperation to make this effort successful,” said a senior BNP leader, quoting Tarique Rahman at a views-exchange meeting with grassroots leaders at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh in Dhaka.
The BNP has 82 organisational districts across the country and presidents and general secretaries of its 11 front and associate bodies attended the views-exchange meeting, the first of its kind since the party formed the government.
During the closed-door meeting, Tarique Rahman, also the leader of the House, instructed the grassroots leaders to strongly maintain discipline and the party’s chain of command, shunning the path of intra-party feuds over any issues, said the BNP leader who was present at the meeting, requesting not to be named.
The programme was held with BNP Senior Joint Secretary General, also political adviser to the prime minister, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, in the chair, where the party’s standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Selima Rahman, Ameer Khashru Mahmud Chowdhury, minister for finance and planning, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Salahuddin Ahmed, minister for home affairs, AZM Zahid Hossain, state minister for social welfare, were present, among others.
Responding to a query, the BNP leader said, “Tarique Rahman is set for a hard-fought struggle to uplift the party’s image, asking the party leaders not to fall into any trap of any anti-party or anti-state politics to gain personal interest.”

Regarding the ongoing protests of the main opposition, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance over the implementation of the referendum verdict in light of the July National Charter, the BNP chairman instructed his party men not to create any chaotic situation by unleashing counter programmes elsewhere in the country.
However, the prime minister once again reiterated his party’s commitment to implementing the ins and outs of the charter that BNP has signed, said the BNP stalwart after emerging from the meeting.
Earlier in the day, at the beginning of the programme, Tarique Rahman stressed the need for practising pro-people politics and said BNP’s election manifesto has evolved into a people-oriented one as the people voted for the party, supporting the electoral commitments.
Claiming that the government will not be able to become successful without the support and coordination of the ruling party, he said, “We will have to begin a struggle afresh to fulfil the pledges we made before the nation.” 
“About 52% of people in the country cast their votes in support of our manifesto. Therefore, we must try our best to implement what we said in it,” he said, calling upon his party men to remain united as they were during the 12 February national election.
“We promised before the nation to reshape the country with good governance where children will get a congenial atmosphere for education, while men, women and children will be able to walk through the streets safely,” he said.
The prime minister confessed that the people have paid a lot to free the country from autocracy and fascism and said, “We want a political atmosphere to prevail across the country where we will engage in debate on several issues and freely express our opinion.”
“We say the current government is a BNP government. That is why if the BNP does not cooperate, the government will not be able to succeed in many areas,” said the prime minister.

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