Opposition leader Khaleda Zia, who is leading a long march to Sylhet, said on Monday afternoon that the next national election will definitely be held under a caretaker government and Awami League will have to participate in the polls.
Addressing the third wayside meeting at Bhairab in Kishoreganj on her way to Sylhet at 3:45 pm, the BNP chairperson said the last
Fakhruddin-Moeenuddin regime was not a caretaker government as said by Awami League.
“It was an illegal and unconstitutional government,” Khaleda told the roadside public gathering. On the much-debated Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), she said the device cannot be introduced as there is a wide scope for rigging with it.
About deals with India, the opposition leader said agreements are being signed with the neighbouring country to make Bangladesh bankrupt. Khaleda alleged that the government is providing corridors to India in the name of transit. “Roads are being constructed to ensure benefits for a foreign country and plying of their vehicles without duty.”
Khaleda said the government has taken loan from them (India) at a high interest rate and people will have to bear the liability. At the wayside rally, the BNP chief claimed that some 5,000 vehicles joined their road march.
Leaders of the components of the four-party alliance, including Khelafat Majlish Ameer Moulana M Ishaque, BJP president Andalib Rahman Partho, MP and Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, and leaders of other like-minded political parties, including LDP president Col (retd) Oli Ahmed and JAGPA president Shafiul Alam Prodhan, among others, joined the road march.
Addressing the second street-side meeting at Itakhola in Narshingdi Khaleda at 2:45 pm, she urged people to join the future course of anti-government movement to oust the government.
She criticised the government for controlling media, particularly the TVs, and putting restriction on the opposition’s programmes. At the first wayside meeting at 12:05 pm at Tarabo road crossing in Rupganj, Khaleda urged people to remove the present ‘corrupt government’ by
joining the opposition programmes to save the country.
“All of them, from the top to bottom of the government, are corrupt. You’ll be better off if this corrupt government is removed,” she told the gathering. Narayanganj district BNP president Taimur Alam Khandaker and general secretary Kazi Moniruzzaman and Rupganj municipality mayor Shafiqul Islam Chowdhury received Khaleda Zia at Tarabo and presented a bunch of `sheaf of paddy’, the election symbol of BNP, and a key to the municipality.
Briefly addressing the wayside meeting, the BNP chairperson said the World Bank has branded the present government as ‘corrupt from head to toe’.
The World Bank, she mentioned, has stopped funding the Padma Bridge project and investigation is going on in Canada over alleged corruption.
The former Prime Minister reiterated that the next general election will not be allowed under any party government and the election will have to be held under the caretaker government system.
She called for constituting the Election Commission with people acceptable to all political parties. Khaleda alleged that the incumbent Election Commission paved the way for the present government to come to power by vote rigging in the last general election.
She listed the government failures in various sectors and its failure to fulfill its election commitments. “The party in power had pledged to feed people with rice at Tk 10 per Kg but rice price now stands at Tk 50 per kg,” she said.
The opposition leader said the handloom sector has been destroyed and the weavers are not getting the fair prices of their products.
“The government has become isolated from people due to its failures and misdeeds,” she said adding that even its foreign mentors have deserted them.
Thousands of leaders and workers of BNP and its front and associate organisations as well as supporters and people of all strata welcomed Khaleda’s caravan.
As the caravan moved on with police and RAB escorting them, people of all ages – young and old, male and female – standing on both sides of the road chanted slogans and waved in greeting holding placards, banners and portraits of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman.
A smiling Khaleda Zia, wearing a pink saree, responded to the enthusiastic crowd by waving hands from her white colored jeep. Many party and Khaleda fans were seen presenting sheaf of paddy to the opposition leader.
Earlier, at around 10:45 am, the BNP chief formally led the caravan from in front of the party’s central office at Naya Paltan in the capital. She started the journey from her Gulshan residence at about 10:10 am.
The Dhaka-Sylhet road march is the first major mass contact of BNP, both individually and jointly with its allies. Leaders of the BNP-led four-party alliance and other like minded political parties joined the road march.