Awami League has kick-started organisational tours across the country to drum up support for the party ahead of the national polls in the yearend. As part of the programme, an AL delegation led by party general secretary Obaidul Quader boarded a train at Kamalapur railway station in Dhaka for Nilphamari yesterday morning. The other delegation members are AL joint secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak, publicity and publication secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud, organising secretaries Ahmad Hossain, Abu Sayed AL Mahmud Swapan, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, cultural secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil and Biplob Barua.

The ruling party delegation will hold more than 11 rallies at railway stations in Tangail, Pabna, Natore, Bogra, Joypurhat, Dinajpur and Nilphamari districts, said Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, who is also the AL Rajshahi unit organising secretary. Talking to reporters at Kamalapur railway station ahead of the team’s departure, Quader said the train journey was aimed at taking the message of development work carried out by the AL government to the people and rejuvenate party leaders and workers ahead of the national polls.

“This journey is our election journey. The tour will continue. We’ll launch our electoral campaign on September 13. Then, we are scheduled to take our campaign to Chattogram, Mymensingh and Kishoreganj by road,” he said.

“The upcoming election will be a competitive one and we have to make preparations accordingly. If there is any internal dispute, we have to resolve it. This campaign is to revitalize the grassroots leaders,” he added.

Later, speaking at a rally at the Gharinda railway station in Tangail, Quader said AL under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina will win the next parliamentary election by “foiling all conspiracies”.

The party high-ups will select candidates for the next polls based on their popularity, he said. “AL leaders who betray the party or rebel against the party’s nominated candidates will be expelled from the party instantly,” he added.

In an oblique reference to the BNP, the AL leader claimed that those who had failed to create anarchy in the country in 2014 were now preparing to create disturbances and indiscipline.

Addressing another rally at Santahar railway station in Bogra, Quader said the people of the country didn’t want to see BNP come to power anymore as the BNP-Jamaat led government had made the country the “champion in corruption” five times in the past.

The AL general secretary also instructed the party’s grassroots leaders and workers against criticizing their own party leaders in front of people.