The BNP plans to overhaul its top leadership at the ensuing national council, inducting more new faces in different committees, including its policy-making body, the standing committee, to give the party a fresh and vibrant look.
The much-awaited national council will be held at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh on March 19. The new faces will be promoted to the posts of vice-chairman and joint secretary general and to the advisory council, according to party sources.
At least five to seven new but known faces will be drawn mainly from the ranks of mid-level leadership to rejuvenate the party’s highest policymaking body, said the sources. The names of some prominent leaders likely to become standing committee members have already cropped up in different party forums. They are vice-chairmen Abdullah Al Noman, Selima Rahman and Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Maj (Retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, chairperson’s advisers, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Dr Osman Faruk and joint secretary Md Shajahan.   
The 19-member standing committee has lost three members, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, who was elected party secretary general in the last council, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, who was executed for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, and Dr RA Ghani, who passed away recently.
Standing committee member M Shamsul Islam is now critically ill and Sarwari Rahman has become inactive due to her age and family preoccupation. Both are likely to be moved from the standing committee to the advisory council of the party chairperson, according to party insiders.
The strength of the standing committee is likely to be increased to 26 from the existing 19. In that case, the party will have to induct seven more members, said the sources. Party acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, is going to be a full-fledged secretary general, while joint secretary general, Ruhul Kabir Rivzi Ahmed, is likely to be made senior joint secretary general, according to reliable sources.
The leaders likely to be promoted as vice-chairmen are joint secretaries general Aman
Ullah Aman, Mahbubuddin Khokan, Mizanur Rahman Mino, Barkat Ullah Bulu and Shalah Uddin Ahmed.
Most of the joint secretaries general will come from the rank and file, front organisations and who were elected to the key positions, including organising secretaries.
There was discussion regarding the organising secretaries—Fazlul Haque Milon, Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie, Asadul Habib Dulu, Manjurul Islam, Manju, Dr Sakhawat Hossain Jibon, Mojibur Rahman Sarwar and Juba Dal president Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal. They may be the new joint secretaries general.
Preferring anonymity, a senior party leader said eligible and efficient leaders would be chosen for the key posts. The party high command would like to overhaul the standing committee, combining old and new faces to provide a new dimension to party activities, he said. “Only dedicated and capable leaders will be promoted to the party’s highest policymaking body to provide leadership,” the leader observed.
The BNP chairperson’s adviser, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, termed the changes in leadership through the national council as an ongoing process. “Everyone expects that committed, honest and eligible leaders would be inducted in different committees of the party,” he said.
Another senior leader, however, said no one could say for sure who would be chosen for which post. “It depends only on the chairperson and senior vice-chairman and they will decide on the party leadership. We have come to know that five new members will be inducted in the standing committee,” he added.
He believes that the party chairperson would pick those who are capable of leading the party movement against the misdeeds of the government. The leader rued that the party failed to launch proper and timely programmes to boost the young leadership. The party, he added, will be strengthened at least to some extent as the new leadership would make an effort to do something better for the party.