The Awami League (AL) may face a tough task in dealing with the demand of its alliance partners that more parliamentary seats should be shared with them this time than in earlier general elections. Even small political parities of the AL-led alliance want at least one parliamentary seat each in the 11th general elections to be held towards the end of the year. The ruling party has decided to deal with the issue in two ways. First, the top leadership would prefer distributing tickets among popular and competent alliance leaders if its arch rival, the BNP, takes part in the next election. Second, the ruling party may chose to contest unilaterally if the BNP boycotts the poll.
But the party feels that the BNP will take part in the polls. In that case, the AL will contest the elections jointly with its alliance partners.
Meanwhile, eight alliance partners of the ruling party have demanded almost 200 parliamentary seats in the next polls.
Among the AL-led Grand Alliance partners, the Jatiya Party wants 70 seats, Workers Party of Bangladesh 30-40 seats, two factions of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) at least 20 seats, the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation 30 seats, Shamyabadi Dal four to five seats, Ganatantri Party 10–12 seats, Gana Azadi League five to six seats, the National Awami Party (NAP) 20–25 seats, and the Communist Kendro and Gonotantrik Majdur Party want one seat each to contest the next elections.
Although the combine is called the 14-Party Alliance, there are, in fact, only nine parties—Awami League, JSD (Inu), Workers Party, Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal (Marxsbadi-Leninbadi), Gonotantri Party, Communist Kendro, Gono Azadi League, National Awami Party (NAP-Mojaffor) and Gonotantric Majdur Party—in it.
Talking to The Independent, the coordinator of the 14-Party Alliance, Mohammad Nasim, said: “As the BNP will join the next polls, we will contest the elections jointly with our partners. And we will distribute nomination papers among the MP aspirants based on their popularity.”
“Yes, we will consider the logical demands placed by the partners to avert any controversy ahead of the next parliamentary polls,” he added.
AL general secretary Obaidul Quader said the AL would finalise the parliamentary seat-sharing ratio after consultation with the alliance partners. Senior AL leaders would soon sit with the alliance partners to discuss the issue, he added.
However, Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad, in a public meeting recently, demanded at least 70 parliamentary seats for his party in the upcoming general elections.
Record shows six lawmakers from Workers Party, five from JSD, two each from JP (Manju) and Bangladesh Tarikat Federation were elected in the last parliamentary polls.
“We’ll seek more than 30 seats. We’ve already directed our possible candidates to conduct poll campaign,” WP general secretary Fazle Hosain Badsha told The Independent yesterday.
JSD faction president Sharif Nurul Ambia said they already directed the party candidates to start election campaigns in their areas. “We’ll seek 20 to 30 parliamentary seats from the alliance,” he added.
Tarikat Federation chairman Nazibal Bashar Maizbhandari said they would ask the alliance for 25–30 seats.
SK Sikder, general secretary of Gano Azadi League, said they already placed their demand before Mohammad Nasim for at least one parliamentary seat. “We have placed our demand in this regard. I hope that the coordinator will consider our demand before the polls,” he added.
Dilip Barua, general secretary of Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal, said: “We asked for five parliamentary seats in the next polls in favour of our party. But if we get at least one, we’ll be happy.”
Ganotantri Party presidium member Nurur Rahman Selim said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should sacrifice at least one parliamentary seat for each of the small political parties in the alliance in the next polls.