District units see rat race for posts

District-level leaders of BNP are now busy with last-minute lobbying to get included in the district convening committees to be announced in a day or two. Party leaders said the district-level leaders have become desperate to secure posts in the convening committees. Even a number of senior leaders are vying for the posts of convener and joint conveners of the new committees to have control over district leadership. Many grassroots-level leaders are now in the capital to persuade the policy makers to include them in the convening committees.The National Standing Committee (NSC) of BNP has already finalised the names of conveners and a few joint conveners for district convening committees that will be assigned to reorganise the party from union to district levels by holding council. However, the party's policy makers said they would not make any decision on its Dhaka city unit right now. "The standing committee approved the convening committees for all districts and city units except for Dhaka as we are yet to decide on it," BNP standing committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told The Daily Star last evening. He said the new convening committees with a convener and a few joint conveners would be announced by this week.Asked whether intra-party conflicts might escalate after announcement of new committees, Mosharraf said, "It's not unusual that some leaders might be aggrieved since BNP is a big political party. But we shall request all to work together in the greater interest of the party." The party would nominate a convener and a few joint conveners for a 51-member district committee. The rest of the members will be co-opted into it later, said party leaders. A senior BNP leader said the process of reorganising the party was delayed because of lobbying by some top-level leaders for including their followers in the new committees.Earlier, a four-member high-powered committee led by party Chairperson Khaleda Zia reviewed the reports of grassroots-level leaders for about two months to constitute the district and city convening committees as part of the move to reorganise the party.